Harry Potter and The Start of Something New
by unwrittenlegacy
Summary: Based off JellyFish72's story. The Dursley's refuse to take Harry in for the summer following the end of his fifth year and Dumbledore must search farther into Harry's relations to find a new place for him to stay. Harry is notified that he will be going to live with the Evans family in New Mexico. Some AU. Harry/Kelsi. Epilogue by cornholio4 Complete. :)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer, I own nothing of Harry Potter or High School Musical. The first two chapters are heavily based on JellyFish72's story and I will gladly give right of way to her should she return to writing.**

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Harry sat at the edge of his bed, looking at him shoes. "Are you ready, Harry?" Hermione asks softly as she steps into the boy's dorm room. Ron glances over at her and gives a light, reassuring smile before turning to look at Harry again with concern in his eyes for his best friend.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I suppose." Harry murmurs back, looking up at Hermione and giving a weak smile before he sets his face in an emotional mask. It had been a week. One week since the Ministry, one full week since Harry had been seen by anyone other then his dorm roommates, and Hermione since she often was the one to bring back food. She always claimed it was to keep Ron from eating it all on the way back, trying to lighten Harry's mood in some way.

Harry stood up from his bed and gave Hermione a one-armed hug as Ron moved to his other side and threw an arm around him also. As they walked, arms still around each other, to the door leading into the Great Hall, Harry reflected on how glad he was to have their support. Without them, he figured he would still be up in his dorm room, not eating, hardly sleeping, and just focusing on his loss. It had been tough, still was tough everyday, the knowledge that his…that Siri…he was gone. They had stuck by him; Hermione often times rubbing his arm comfortingly, Ron talking about nothing usually. At first he had hated it, wondering why they wouldn't just leave him alone, but after a couple days, he realized that it was because they loved him. They cared about him and knew that he needed them, and their support and company to make it through this without completely falling to pieces.

He took a deep breath as they reached the door. Now was a time that he was thanking the Maker for them, his pulled his emotions together mostly, setting his mask in place and strode forward, still wrapped in the arms of his two friends. Ignoring the stares and whispers, the trio made their way to the Gryffindor table. As they sat, Hermione and Ron staying on either side of him, Ginny reached out from her seat across the table and squeezed his hand reassuringly.

Harry focused completely on the food sitting in front of him, trying to keep his mind off anything else that could threaten to break the façade that he was all right. He knew that, no matter how good an actor he was (and he thought he was pretty good; after all, the Wizarding World believed him to be their savior, and the Dursleys hadn't realized that he wasn't actually afraid of them yet), if he let his concentration slip, it would be too much.

The arrival of the mail caused him to focus on something besides his issues for a quick moment. He fed Hedwig a piece of bacon as she landed in front of him. Stroking her head absentmindedly (and believing she had just come to see him, as she was wont to do), he didn't even think to see if she had mail for him until she pecked his hand. Hedwig gave Harry an annoyed glare as he took the note rom her leg. "Sorry, girl," he apologized, hoping she wouldn't be too unhappy with him. She nibbled his fingers lightly, forgiving him, but still cuffed his head gently with her wing as she flew off. Turning his attention to the note, he opened it to reveal Dumbledore's distinctive script.

_Harry,_

_I know you are probably still quite upset with me, and you have every right to be, but there is something very important I need to discuss with you._

_If you'd come meet me at 8 this evening in my office, I'd much appreciate it._

_Albus Dumbledore_

_P.S. Don't forget - I'm quite fond of Blood Pops._

He shut his eyes as he finished the note. He hadn't forgotten the meeting he and Dumbledore had shortly after returning from the Ministry. His brain had already been shut down once the adrenaline left his system from chasing Bellatrix. He had lost his godf… used an Unforgivable and then been possessed for a short time by Voldemort all in the span of an hour. Then Dumbledore plows through and drops the Prophecy in his lap.

Harry knew he had allowed his anger to get the better of him, the aftershock of everything hit him at the exact same time and it was simply too much. He was frustrated with Dumbledore, and hurt that such big things had been kept from him, but a small part of him knew that Dumbledore meant well. His emotions once more reigned in, he looked up to the head table and nodded after catching Dumbledore's eye.

Turing back to his food, he tried to not think about what might be the reason behind the meeting that was to come later that evening.

The day passed like most others before it, classes were finished, exams had been taken, and it was the day before they returned home. Harry forced his mind away from thinking about his return to the Dursleys, not looking forward to that in the slightest. Presently, Harry found himself wandering towards Dumbledore's office. He may not really want to have another meeting with the headmaster right now, but Hermione had said that he wouldn't be able to avoid Dumbledore for the rest of his life. The sooner you face your problem, the sooner you can overcome it.

He reached the gargoyle that stands guard outside the stairwell a few minutes before 8, not wanting to be late for a meeting with Dumbledore. "Blood Pops," He said, feeling foolish saying the password. He rode up the stairs to the massive door and paused with his hand raised to knock. His emotions were all over the place, his body and mind were fighting over whether to turn and run back to the dorm and bury himself under his covers or storm into the office angrily. He took a couple deep breaths, forcing himself back into the emotional mask and making himself chose the third and middle option between the two. He knocked softly and opened the door when Dumbledore's, "Come in, Harry," beckoned him.

He edged into the room slowly, noticing the box full of the silver trinkets he had smashed during his last visit. He looked back at Dumbledore and was met with a sad look. "Please, sit down." Harry moved to the chair across from Dumbledore. "First off, let me apologize again for hurting you with my choices, and let me offer my deepest condolences for you loss." Dumbledore said softly, a few tears slipping down his face. Harry, seeing the tears, lost control over his own mask and the tears began to flow freely though he stayed silent. "He was a great man, though you don't need me to tell you that, and the world will be a bit darker place with him gone, quieter too, if I may say so, but because he isn't here to cause laughter around him." Dumbledore gave a slight smile, to which Harry couldn't resist letting a very weak smile form on his own lips. It hurt to hear, but it was true, maybe he could help fill the gap some, in honor of the man who had become much like a father figure in his life.

They sat for a moment, Dumbledore sniffled once before clearing his throat lightly, "Second, there has been an attack." Harry leaped from his chair.

"What? Where? Was it the Weasley's or- REMUS! Is he- are they okay?" He shouted, fear entering his eyes and mind as he worried about whom else could be taken from him so soon after.

Dumbledore smiled reassuringly at Harry, but inwardly he wondered how far Harry must have drifted from his family that the Weasley's and Remus were his first concerns. Actually, the Dursleys weren't mentioned at all, he noticed. "Calm down, Harry," he said, politely ignoring the glare Harry sent him, "Both the Weasley's and Remus are safe. The attack was on the Dursley's."

Harry's glare dropped as he blinked, not having been expecting that. Though he didn't like them any more than the disliked him, they were still…slightly family. "Are-are they all right? What about the wards? Shouldn't they have stopped the attack?" He asked, moving to sit back down.

"If the attack had been at your home, then, yes, the wards would have stopped it. However, the attack was at a Muggle shopping center, and your relatives were merely victims of circumstance. They were uninjured, but are refusing to let you stay with them this summer."

"I'm sorry to hear that they are hurt, but not so much that I don't have to stay with them again." His mind raced; he had begged Dumbledore to let him stay somewhere else during the summers. Maybe now he could stay with the Weasleys all summer long, Hermione usually would come over and visit them so the three of them would still be around.

Dumbledore pressed his finger tips together in front of him as he leaned back in his chair. "Well, due to the need to keep the blood wards renewed, I was forced to track down some more... distant Muggle relatives on your mother's side. The only problem is, they don't know about magic, and as I would like to believe that you have enough control that they won't need to be told," he paused here, both preparing to drop a bombshell on Harry, and to give him a small, knowing look, "So they are planning to enroll you in a Muggle high school with their children. Are you going to be able to pretend you know what they're talking about to finish the school year there?"

Harry shrugged. "There shouldn't be too much of a problem, Professor. I've been using Dudley's school books during the summers to keep up with my Muggle schooling. I should be all right. But sir, what about school here? I'll only stay there for the summer right?" Harry asked with confusion. He still had two more years before he graduated from Hogwarts, he also wasn't sure that he would be able to make it without Ron and Hermione by his side, they had been through everything with him.

Dumbledore smiled slightly at him, "I'm sure Miss Granger would be proud to hear that. We are working on getting a few things put together so that you can attend over there as well as continue your classes here. We will work it out more as summer proceeds, if it falls through, then you will return here. I know it will be difficult to pack up and leave here, but…well as you have seen the past five years here; the school isn't even that safe for you. I doubt that scar on the back of your hand was done for fun. I will be talking about that in the Wizengamot by the way, she will be held responsible." Dumbledore states softly though a fire burns in his eyes.

"If everything works like we want it to, we will spread rumors that you have gone underground and you're being tutored privately, part of Sirius' will or some such reasoning. Think about it, talk with your friends, and we can talk more later. You will be leaving with Alastor Moody from Platform 9 3/4 when you arrive tomorrow and your plane will leave shortly after that. Thankfully, everything was able to come together in such short time. Magical if I may say so." He said with his signature twinkling eyes. "Any questions?" He asks.

Harry shakes his head. "Very well, you will be spending the summer with the Evans family in Albuquerque, New Mexico." Dumbledore states with a kindly smile though sadness is still screaming out through his eyes as his gaze hovers on Harry.

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Simply could not resist continuing this story. Hasn't been touched since sometime in '09 I think and it was too good of an idea to pass up. If JellyFish72 returns to writing, I will rewrite the first two chapters of mine since they are technically hers and continue on with the rest. Until that point in time, if any of you have read hers, I hope this satisfies your desire to read more.

Harry is going to be a year older than he should be coming out of fifth year. I want him in the same grade as the others so simply put, Harry is 16, turning 17 and going into his Junior year with Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay and Ryan. Couldn't decide if doing that was better than pushing everyone else back a year, but I think this will work out the best. Think of it as kids starting at Hogwarts at 12 rather than at 11 if you must. Harry still has his sixth and seventh years ahead of him technically.

Any questions, feel free to review or PM and ask.


	2. Chapter 2

The train ride from Hogwarts had been mostly subdued for the trio, and Ginny who had joined them part of the way through. By good fortune, Draco didn't stop by the compartment this year so the four friends were able to talk with each other with little interruption; having already grown accustomed to the stares and curious glances from people passing their compartment. The train slowed as it pulled into the station and Ron moved to walk next to Harry while the girls followed behind.

The four stepped off together, received their luggage and began making their way towards the large mass of people the Weasleys and Grangers would be standing in, waiting for the group. Moody found them first.

"Come on, Potter. Say your goodbyes and then we must be on our way." He said in his usual, gruff manner.

Harry turned to his friends and gave each of them a hug, Ginny first, then Ron, followed by Hermione; the second two holding on a bit longer and tighter. He wouldn't admit it to anyone other than the two he was currently embracing, but his eyes began to tear up. He was taking a Portkey to Heathrow Airport from Platform 9 and ¾, essentially as soon as he stepped off the train. "I'm going to miss you both, you know that, right?" Harry asked, trying not to sound too emotional.

"Mate, we're going to miss you, too; don't even begin to think we're not," Ron jokingly glared at him, smacking lightly upside the head.

"And, you're to call when you get there, all right, Harry?" Hermione stated in a no-nonsense, motherly manner. "If they don't want to pay for the call, just reverse the charges. I want to make sure you get there in one piece, and I want to hear from you this summer. I know we can owl each other, but overseas owling takes a long time, and one of us could be in trouble before the others knew about it. So, you have to call me at least once a week, and I'll either owl Ron with any news, or I'll try to get him on the phone, now that he knows how to use one properly…" Hermione glanced at Ron as she said this, who's ears had turned slightly red at the memory of this last (rather disastrous) phone call.

"Of course, 'Mione. And if anything happens – to anyone here – be sure to call me. I need to make sure everything's all right. Oh, and I'll probably be calling for homework help, as well." Harry says, smirking slightly at Hermione.

Hermione mock-glared at him. "Harry James Potter, you know that I will not give you answers on your homework! …But on your Muggle homework, I might be persuaded to help a little."

Moody stomped over to where the trio was. "Hurry up, Potter, time to get moving; things to do, planes to catch. We've got to hurry you know. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Harry brushed a single tear off Hermione's cheek, blinking back his own tears. "I have to go…" He trailed off as he was swept into a tight group hug. Harry couldn't help thinking, _'I'm going to miss this…'_ He pulled away reluctantly, wiping at his eyes as Ron cleared his throat and Hermione openly cried. "… It won't be all that long… I'll be back before you know it." He claimed, though he didn't sound sure himself.

"Never learned the meaning of the word 'hurry', did you, Potter? Your plane is leaving in less than an hour. Get moving!" Moody exclaimed, though Harry wasn't paying much attention. He twisted under Moody's grip, craning his head to look back at his best friends. When he saw them standing there, waving slightly, Hermione being supported by Ron, all he could say was "…bye…"

The portkey trip was quick, well, should have been, Moody ended up changing the destination of it twice. Harry thought he glimpsed a view of Spain before they finally arrived in the Heathrow airport. He turned to Moody after they made it into the airport.

"Here's your carry-on bag – there's a note from the Headmaster in there explaining its contents. Here's your trunk – the outside has been transfigured to look like a Muggle suitcase, although, why they can't use trunks like normal people, I don't know… I've got your ticket and travel documents… well, they were right here…" Moody dug through his coat in a way that was eerily reminiscent of Hagrid. "Ah, here they are! Okay, your plane is boarding in… 2 minutes, so off you go, Potter. Don't get yourself killed! CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody bellowed at the end.

Harry cringed as the businessmen around them turned and glared at Moody. He supposed they did make quite the sight. He mentally prayed that the Auror wouldn't curse anyone – if they were trying to smuggle him out of the country, a breach of the Statute of Secrecy would certainly make it harder.

He said his goodbyes to the Auror as he grabbed his bags and rushed off to find his gate (which, of course, was on the other side of the airport). He slipped in to the end of the queue, quickly handing his boarding pass to the woman at the door. _'It's too bad Hermione's not here… or even Ron. Although, as much as I care for him, he might not make this flight any easier.'_

Harry placed his trunk in the compartment above his seat, and settled into his spot for the next many hours. Opening the backpack he'd been given as a carry-on, he found a rather large envelope with his name on it. _'I guess this is Dumbledore's note for me…'_ He set the backpack on the floor and opened the letter.

_Harry,_

_I do apologize for having to do this to you – I know you'd have liked to spend the summer with your friends, but your safety must come first. Also, I admit, I did have a bit of an ulterior motive in mind when I went looking for relatives of yours – I was hoping that I could find somewhere you could go where you wouldn't have the stigma of being the Boy-Who-Lived, and that you could go places and be yourself without having to constantly watch for Lord Voldemort._

_So, as an attempt to make the transition to Muggle life a little easier (and as an attempt to begin to rectify the mistakes I've made with you), I took the liberty of contacting Ms. Granger's parents. They offered to purchase you the necessary devices you'll need to… 'fit in', I believe, is the phrase they used._

_I wish you well on your trip, and I'll be in contact with you soon._

_Albus Dumbledore_

Harry smiled – in all honesty, he still wasn't that angry with the Headmaster. It was understandable, Dumbledore was human, he would make mistakes, and while they seemed huge to Harry, and some admittedly were, in the grand scheme of things they were mostly minor. The part of him that was hurting screamed otherwise, and he tried to objectively look at both sides of the argument. His mind was caught away for a few minutes on this train of thought and he was only brought back when the pilot announced they would begin take off shortly and the plane began to move out, onto the runway. He considered the headmaster to be a form of a grandfather to him, and knew the man saw him in the same light. After all, when other students are in the Hospital Wing, their headmasters don't sit at their bedsides to keep vigil – or to keep the nightmares away, as Dumbledore had after the incident with Quirrel.

Harry peered inside the bag again, grabbing the other note he found in there.

_Harry-_

_We hope these will help you fit in while in the Muggle world this summer. Don't even begin to think about paying us back, either – consider this repayment for everything you have done for our daughter over the years. We are very well off, and it hasn't hurt us to do this for you, but it is something we can do to thank you for being her friend and protector._

_Inside this backpack are a laptop computer, cell phone, and iPod. The laptop has most programs you will need for school, as well as a few popular games we thought you might enjoy. The iPod has some music on it already – things we've pulled from Hermione's music collection as well as our own, and a few other popular albums as well – and you can always buy more with one of the programs on your laptop. The cell phone has your number taped onto the back of it, and has Hermione's programmed into it already – we suggest giving her a call as soon as you get settled, otherwise she may never forgive you. It's also been set up with text messaging, so you can send her messages at any time._

_We've also included a few recent DVDs you can play on your laptop so you'll have an idea of what people are talking about when they discuss them, and your backpack, obviously, can be used for your classes._

_Good luck with your family._

_-Dan and Emma Granger_

Harry grinned to himself, and made a mental note to tell Hermione how much he loved her parents. He slid out his new laptop, and after a few minutes of fumbling around with it, put a DVD in and settled down for a long flight.

Two movies later and they still had around six hours of fly time to go. Deciding to sleep for a while, Harry put in his headphones and pressed play on his new iPod, trying to have something to drown out any noise around him. A few songs later, he began nodding off; the last lyrics he heard were from a song that was just starting, "_Living in my own world…"_

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Here is where JellyFish72's original story cut off, I took the first chapter of it and made it longer, but I liked how the second and third flowed so easily into each other that I decided to keep things the way they were. There may be clichés throughout, but hey, they can be fun as long as the entire story isn't one.

Harry will not sing, except maybe on one or two occasions and there will be outside forces at work, aka magic, more to be explained at the time of event. Reviews are welcomed and desired. Questions, comments, concerns, random thoughts, whatever; you are more than welcome to post.


	3. Chapter 3

An attendant shook Harry awake. Blearily, he opened his eyes, turned to look at her and pulled out one of his headphones. She smiled down at him, "We are going to be starting our descent soon and I wanted you to be aware. I need you to return your seat to its upright position and be ready for our landing." She smiled kindly down at him and then moved on to help the other passengers on the flight. A few moments later the pilot came over the speakers and announced their projected landing time in Phoenix, Arizona was around 10 in the evening, he commented on the weather and a few other things that Harry mostly ignored as he gathered his things together. Another attendant came by shortly after and walked him through a few papers he needed to fill out and explained a couple important pieces of information he needed to know when she heard it was his first times in the states. They had landed and Harry was making ready to get off the plane. He stood and followed the line of people off the plane, nodding once more to the attendant who had spoken with him before stepping off the plane fully and walking down the hallway.

Looking at his watch, he decided he should give Hermione a call when he arrived in New Mexico after his connecting flight got in. There wasn't much time between him getting off the flight from Heathrow and the flight leaving to go to Albuquerque so he quickly walked to the area in the terminal his flight was to be leaving from. He had just walked up when the woman standing behind the desk called for the first people to be seated. His blood pumping from the small amount of exercise on the jog over, he felt fully awake and ready to go, hating the fact that he would have to readjust his sleeping schedule before too long since he was technically supposed to be going to sleep right now even though it is 5 am in London right now. His headphones still in, listening to the songs that Hermione's parents had put on the iPod the bought him, Harry made his way back onto the plane and settled down in his seat.

This flight passed much as his first had, the third movie the grangers had gotten him and then listening to his iPod again. While he listened, his mind drifted to try to assimilate his time with the Dursleys, the stories told by Hermione and a few things he had noticed of the muggle world, trying to get an idea of what to expect and how to act when he got around his new family. He wished Hedwig had been able to come with him, but he knew for a fact that snowy white owls were not a normal pet; they were, in fact, a rather exotic pet actually. Watching the movies had helped his get a better idea of how things were done in the muggle world. Sure he had been raised by muggles, but they had never really let him experience the muggle world and how they interacted, Harry had gotten to know how spiders, ants and other critters that were in his cupboard with him work though.

The plane landed without any problem, and Harry made his way off of the plane. He left the terminal area and found a man dressed in a very nice suit holding a sign with his name on it. Harry panicked slightly, no one except Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, and his family here in the states was supposed to know he was coming but he wasn't sure if this man was part of the family or someone who found out something they weren't supposed to.

He slipped to the side, pulled out his phone and gave Hermione a call. She picked up on the second ring, "Harry! You remembered! I'm proud of you, how was the flight? Did you like the movies, mom and dad told me what Dumbledore had asked them to do. How do you like the iPod, how do you like your family so far?"

"Hermione, slow down, I'll answer your questions in a moment, there is a guy dressed in black holding a sign with my name on it, what do I do, only you, Ron, Dumbledore, and my family were supposed to know about me coming here but the man doesn't look like Mr. Evans was described to me."

"Oh Harry, he is probably a man employed by Mr. Evans, Dumbledore mentioned something about the Evans family being rich so they probably hired someone to come pick you up. Don't worry, no one else knows about you going to meet your family." She said calmly. "Take a few deep breaths and calm down. If it isn't who you think it is, you have your wand and you will be able to get away. If you want, you can stay on the phone with me, I'm sure it wouldn't look rude."

Harry took a couple deeps breaths and felt his heartbeat slow back down to where it normally was and he slowly moved towards the man. "Excuse me sir, I'm Harry Potter." Harry said with timidity though he didn't think his voiced showed that.

The man smiled kindly at Harry, "Hello Mr. Potter, glad to see you arrived safely." He looked at the small bag and suitcase that Harry had with him. "Have you not gone to get the rest of your luggage? Come, we will go pick it up now." The man said waving in the direction of a few platforms with spinning tracks on them.

"N-no sir, this is all I brought. I don't own anything else." Confused, Harry wondered if he was supposed to have more?

The man looked at him for a moment, "Very well, if this is all then we shall be off, follow me young sir." The man bent over and picked up the suitcase that was sitting beside Harry.

"Umm, just Harry is fine." Harry said as he took up a brisk walk to keep up with the man. Harry put the phone up to his ear, "Still there Hermione?" He asked into the phone.

"Yeah, Harry. You should be fine. I know that it is common for people with a lot of money to hire people to take care of things for them. What time is it there?" She asked, "And I am still expecting answers to everything else I asked." She said with mockingly haughty tone.

Harry chuckled, "You may have to ask them again in a bit, and a little slower. I didn't hear much after your second. And it is around 4, almost 5 in the morning here. You don't know the time difference, you the greatest bookworm in history?" Harry says, joking lightly. It was one of the few topics Harry could joke with Hermione about that Ron couldn't.

"Ha, ha, very funny, slacker. But no, I don't know it right off hand; I think it is something like seven hours behind us though. All right, well call me when you get to the house, hopefully they don't live too far from the airport. If you don't make it there in an hour, something is probably up. I don't think you have anything to worry about though.

"Alright, thanks for all your help Hermione. I'll call you again soon. Tell everybody I miss and love them already." Harry said softly, his voice cracking a bit at the end. This was going to be a nice, but extremely tough summer, and possibly year.

"We love you Harry. Keep me updated, Ron has already sent me an owl asking if you had called yet so I know I speak for both f us that we miss you also. Hope the meeting with your family goes well, or at the very least, better than those Dursleys." Hermione says with viciousness to her voice when she mentioned the Dursleys.

"'Kay 'Mione, bye..." He says and then hangs up after Hermione says goodbye.

The man led Harry over to one of the longest cars he had ever seen. It was pink and had S.E. plastered on the side with glittering letters. Harry looked at it in confusion and the man who was leading him caught it, "Ah, yes, terribly sorry but the normal limo was in the shop for repairs so we had to use this one. It is the personal limo for Ms. Sharpay Evans. I personally wouldn't have been okay with it if it had been for the fact that it is nearly five in the morning."

Harry was shocked, Sharpay Evans was his second cousin and she had her own limo? He turned to the man, "Does the whole family have a limo?" He asked in amazement. The man chuckled, no, though if you want one, you can probably ask them for one. She has one because she asked, no 'needed' her own." The man said with a slight hint of a mocking tone to his voice. Harry gave a slight glare at the man in frustration, how dare he talk about his family like that, he may not have met them yet, but still, it was his family. The man apparently caught the look and cleared his face quickly.

"I don't need one, or want one." He shrugged, letting the small glare fade from his face. He didn't want to seem mean, but he didn't want people making fun of his family. The man moved to the side and opened the door for him before picking up the suitcase and placing it in the trunk. Harry moved forward slowly and looked in with amazement. It was at least five times the size of his cupboard at the Dursleys, and they just used this for transportation?

He slid into the car and jumped slightly when the man closed the door behind him. A few seconds later, the man slid into the seat in the front of the dividing wall between his seating and the front seat. "So how long have you been working for the Evans, sir?" Harry asked after they had ridden in silence for a couple minutes.

"About three years, I've served a few families before them but Mr. and Mrs. Evans treat me well and I enjoy being around for the tasks they have. I'm sorry if I seemed...discontent with their daughter, Sharpay. It can be difficult at times to work for her, but such is the job. I should not have made my thoughts known and I am sorry for that. You may call me Phillip if you wish, by the way."

Harry looked at the man for a moment, "It's okay, I suppose; I just don't like people talking bad about my family, even if I haven't met them yet."

Phillip nodded in response and the two continued to talk for the rest of the ride to the Evans' house. Harry found that he liked the man, that he had a very enjoyable wit and was always quick with replies or small comments that had Harry laughing multiple times during the drive. After half an hour, the pulled up to the house and Phillip once more exited the car and opened Harry's door for him. Harry thanked the man and slung his bag over his shoulder. He stared at the very large house. Hogwarts had it beat in terms of size and first impression by a long shot, but Harry was still easily able to appreciate the look of the house.

Phillip returned from the trunk with Harry's suitcase and asked Harry to follow him. Harry was lead through the house and to the room Phillip told him he would be in for the duration of his stay. Harry thanked the man and shook his hand, wishing him a good day and then turned back to the room. It was nearly twice the size of the room he had at the Dursleys and was very well decorated though a little too richly for his tastes. He pulled his phone out once again and called Hermione, noting that it was nearing six in the morning here in Albuquerque. Hermione answered after a couple rings, "All safe and sound Harry?" She asked as soon as she picked up, and such was the way the conversation went for the next hour as Harry moved about his room, putting up his meager amount of belongings.

Around eight, Phillip returned with a woman who was also dressed in very well kept black clothes. "Harry, this is Cathy, she is our cook here and she was wondering what you would like to eat." Phillip explained while Cathy bowed to Harry when she was introduced.

"Nice to meet you Cathy," Harry smiled to the woman, "I'm fine with whatever will be easiest, I am not a picky eater. Do you mind if I come watch though? I didn't enjoy it when I was being forced to cook, but cooking in and of itself, I absolutely love." Harry stated with enthusiasm. Cathy smiled and nodded at him, "That would be fine I will be starting in a few minutes after I get the orders from everyone else."

She bowed once more and backed from the room. Phillip watched as Harry's face contorted slightly at the action and filed it away to wonder about later, this young man was sure to break more than a few expectations he had of people. "We have another young woman who will come through and pick up your clothes to be washed, if you would like my assistance in picking out clothes I am more than happy to assist you."

Harry flushed slightly and looked at his shoes, "Not really much to chose from, I don't know if the best fashion artist could make much of the clothes I have, well, other than rags. I found a credit card that will give me access to my funds though, so I can go shopping for some new ones. I hadn't yet because I was living with...well, yeah, I haven't had the chance to get my own clothes." Harry said softly.

Phillip moved over to the closet and glanced at his clothes. "Hmm," he hums softly to himself, yes, these wouldn't do but he didn't want to make the young man uncomfortable, he also wondered at who he was living with that kept him from buying his own clothes. He had noticed when he first picked Harry up that his clothes were much too big and seemed to be very faded in color but had thought it was more for traveling in comfort. Not that he could tell anyone otherwise, but he had noticed Sharpay wearing loose, worn clothes around the house because they were more comfortable, but she had sworn him to secrecy.

"I am sure that Sharpay would be most happy to take you on a shopping trip, and Ryan wouldn't be against the opportunity either." The wicked gleam in his eyes made Harry a little wary of that possibility.

"Umm, well, alright, but why do I suddenly feel afraid?" He said, joking lightly though he was slightly worried. He had never been shopping before, especially not with people who seemed to be as rich as the Evans family looked.

Phillip chuckled evilly, though he ended up looking at Harry with concern, "Male instincts. We know predators when we see them, or hear about them in this case." He walked over and placed his hands on Harry's shoulders, "It was great meeting you, Harry. Should I see you in the afterlife, don't hate me for bringing up the need for a shopping trip to Sharpay." He said with a slightly joking tone, but Harry could here a sliver of honesty in his voice and gulped audibly.

Phillip laughed, "Ahh, I'm sure it won't be that bad. Now, get dressed and scoot, Cathy seemed very excited to have someone to keep her company while she cooked. Your interest in cooking probably helped with that also." Phillip gave Harry a pat on the shoulder and then left the room.

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I will be the first to admit that I have no idea what living in a rich home would be like so for most of the interactions between Harry and the servants, yeah I have no clue if it is realistic or not. What I am wanting to ultimately achieve is where Harry and the servants become at the least friendly with each other, he gives them respect and treats them as equals, which while the Evans may not treat them like crap, I feel like they wouldn't quite treat them as equals. I see Harry as the kind of guy that will treat you the same as anyone else no matter what job you do. Except evil people, he doesn't treat them quite as nice.

Logistics for this story could be the death of me. If you care enough about it to ask, here are the times of arrival for London and the states Harry goes through. Train from Aberdeen to London, which translates to 'from a city supposedly near to where Hogwarts is to King's Cross,' can take anywhere from 9 1/2 14 hours by 'muggle' train. We'll say that the Hogwarts Express can move a bit quicker, and has no stops, so I'm going to guess it would take around 8 hours for the trip. If I remember correctly, they leave after they have had breakfast on the trip back so around 8 or 9 in the morning, get to King's Cross around four in the afternoon. Add in a little buffer time before the plane leaves and then the ten hour, non-stop flight to Phoenix arriving around 5am London time: 10pm Phoenix time, then a six hour flight to Albuquerque, would put him in around 11am or 12 pm London time, and 4 or 5am in New Mexico.

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I felt like being generous and decided to add this chapter in as well. I am going to do my best to keep ahead of my uploads. I am about to start work on the fifth chapter, or maybe that will happen tomorrow since it is getting a little late... we'll see.


	4. Chapter 4

You have the right to remain silent, however, you should know that anything you say can, and probably will, be used to help further the story. You have the right to your opinion, so why not express it, Review! :) I hadn't planned to post this one already, but there have been a bunch of people reading and favoriting or following the story so I just couldn't resist. But this is it for the week...I think. Enjoy!

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Harry had been in the kitchen for nearly half an hour, watching as Cathy moved about the kitchen easily. The two talked while she worked, anything from how long she had ben cooking to what kinds of herbs and spices she preferred between different dishes. It was nearing nine and he was finally able to catch his first glimpse of Mr. Evans, though it took the man a few moments to realize Harry was there.

"Good morning Mrs. Cordeaux, how is breakfast looking?" He asked as he took in a deep breath of the aroma rising from the cooking food on the stove. Cathy glances back at Mr. Evans, "Good morning sir, it is coming along quite well if I may say so myself, though I may be a bit biased. Why not ask this young man, he seems to know cooking quite well for someone his age." She replies with a smile.

Mr. Evans spins around, and hesitates for a second, "Harry Potter?" He questions.

"Yes sir, hopefully you weren't expecting some other random kid to be in your house." Harry replies with a slight smirk. He extends his hand, "You have a wonderful home sir, thank you for letting me come stay with you all."

Mr. Evans doesn't say anything right away, though he does shake Harry's hand, "It is nice to meet you Harry, my name is Vance Evans. My wife told me that she had received a letter from your guardian in Britain saying that you needed a place to stay and that you were her second cousin's son. Apparently my wife's mother and your grandmother were very close. Darby said she remembers your mother, and her wedding very well. We only found out that they had died when we were asked to take you in. Terribly sorry about that by the way, son." Vance looks Harry over again, "Are these, umm, are these the only clothes you have? Phillip mentioned something about a shopping trip or somethi—"

A shriek ran through the house, "Did someone say something about a shopping trip?" A female voice yelled through the house.

Vance huffs before turning to the door leading from the kitchen, "My darling daughter, what have I told you about yelling in the house?" Vance allows his head to drop into his hands and Harry raises an eyebrow at his actions.

"Oops, sorry daddy!" The voice yelled back. A few moments later, a figure rushes into the kitchen. "Good morning Cathy, is breakfast ready yet?" The blonde girl asks before whipping around without waiting for a reply to face Vance, "So what were you saying about a shopping trip daddy?" The girl, which Harry guessed was Sharpay, asked in a sweet, innocent voice.

Vance's face paled slightly and Harry watched as his eyes took on far away look for a few moments as if remembering some terror. He cleared his throat a few seconds later, "Umm, yes dear, I was saying that Harry here would probably need to go get some new clothes." Vance replied.

Sharpay whirls around, now facing Harry and looks at him in horror for a second before shrieking once more. Much more painful at close range, Harry decided. "You look absolutely dreadful, primitive almost. Oh this will not do, this will not do at all." She spins to her father again, "Father, clear my schedule, and Ryan's, this abomination to fashion must be done away with." She exclaims before rushing off once more.

Harry watches her go, abomination? Done away with? Even the Dursley's weren't quite that harsh, well, maybe they were on par with that. But theirs was at least for all of me; I'm about to be thrown out because of my clothes. Harry's heart sank. Vance chuckled, "Don't worry son. If I know my daughter, she will have a brand new wardrobe picked out for you by the day's end. Mrs. Cordeaux, I must go call the back and make sure there are at least a few million safe from her spending for today, buzz me when breakfast is ready. Harry, you and I will talk more a little later; hopefully, business these days is quite excessive it seems. It was great to finally meet you though, son."

Vance turned and walked briskly out of the kitchen and Harry turned to Cathy, "So they aren't going to throw me out?" He asked timidly. Cathy tutted and gave him a soft pat on the shoulder, "Don't worry dear, that is just Sharpay. I can't say she improves much on closer acquaintance, but you must admire her…dedication to the things that she finds interest in though she can be harsh. Come, I have a couple things left to do before breakfast is ready, how about you give me a hand."

The table was set, the food finished, and the family had been buzzed to come from their rooms to eat. And Harry was seated at the table already. A beautiful woman entered the dinning room and smiled at Harry, "Hello Harry, welcome to our home, my name is Darby. Come, stand." She motioned for him to stand up, "You have grown up quite a bit since I last saw you, granted that was a picture taken of you shortly after you were born. You look much like your father from what I can remember of him. They were wonderful people, I was able to see Lily shortly before she graduated from the boarding school in Scotland, and then once again when she was getting married to your father. Two of the kindest people I have ever met." A couple tears formed in her eyes but she quickly regained her composure, "I was so sad to hear that they had died, even worse that I knew nothing of it. Your guardian assured us that you had been taken care of but that there were some unforeseen issues that had arisen. I'm sorry that it took so long for us to just meet as it is though. I hope you feel very welcome living here with us."

"Mrs. Cordeaux, breakfast smells simply delicious this morning, as always. How you manage to keep up with all of us, I will never know." Cathy bowed slightly and flushed slightly at the praise. Harry beamed towards her, "She is really good at cooking, it seemed like she practically glided around the kitchen half the time."

The talking continued until they heard a pair of footsteps coming in the direction of the dining room. A few moments late, a young man, who Harry guessed was Ryan walked in, his eyes still half closed sleepily. "Couldn't I sleep in for thirty more minutes, mom? It is summertime after all. We usually don't do much after breakfast except lunch and dinner."

"Oh, Ryan, it is not that bad. Besides, if I heard correctly, you, Sharpay and Harry here are all going shopping today." Darby stated with a raised eyebrow as she watched for Ryan's reaction.

Ryan just nodded at first, "Oh! Harry made it in!" His eyes snapped open, "Where…oh! Hi Harry, nice to meet you, I'm Ryan." He moved to where Harry was still standing from Darby's inspection and offered a hand in greeting. Harry shook the offered hand and smiled, "Nice to meet you also Ryan. Hopefully it isn't rude of me, but why have so many people gotten scared when Sharpay and shopping are mentioned in the same sentence?" Harry asked curiously after noticing the look of something close to dread pass over Mrs. Evans' face.

Ryan chuckled, "It's because they don't share the same love for it that she and I do." Ryan glanced over Harry and took a deep breath, "And I am sorry for whatever mean thing she said when she saw you." He said with a thoughtful tone.

"How did you…?" Harry started.

"Not to be rude, but I was just thinking something probably close to the same thing. We take clothes very seriously around here. I have a whole closet full of hats." He said brightly. A slight and quick glance at his mother and then back at Harry.

Vance and Sharpay entered the dinning room, coming from two different directions and the family sat down to eat. There wasn't much conversation during the meal, but the family sat around the table for a short time and talked with Harry, telling him more about themselves, saving asking questions about himself for the dinner since Sharpay, Ryan and Harry were going to be eating while they were out on the shopping trip.

The shopping was…exhausting, from Harry's point of view. He didn't know this many _types_ of clothing stores existed in the world, let alone one state or even city. He decided on that day to never again mention shopping if Sharpay was possibly within ten miles of him. He tried on so many clothes, so many styles, but the Evans twins decided that he looked best in a pair of jeans, and some very nice polo or button up shirts. They talked him into a few flashy shirts that Ryan claimed were gifts from God, and more than a couple hats, mostly in reds, greens, blacks or grays. Color was one of the few things Harry had a say in and even then he didn't have much of a choice. Harry was more than happy with the new clothes though, they didn't stink, they fit him well, making him look less skinny than he had seemed before with all of the oversized clothing. Hogwarts and Quidditch had treated him well; leaving him with a small build and wiry muscles, though he was still a little smaller than one should be for his age.

With the new clothes came a little more confidence. Sharpay didn't seem to pay much attention to Harry, more so the clothes. Ryan however carried on more than a few conversations and he seemed to be more relaxed when Sharpay was off finding more clothes for Harry to try on. His mannerisms shift and are a little more open than Harry thought they were usually, but maybe his mind was messing with him.

The shopping trip ended after many long hours and the three made their way back to the house, more than a couple armfuls of bags being carried by each of them, which consisted only of new clothes for Harry. He had offered to pay for it, but Sharpay said that he didn't need to worry about anything. Buying clothes was buying clothes, and she _loved_ buying clothes. If Harry had paid for it, she had argued, the Harry would be the one buying clothes not her.

Ryan and Harry glanced at each other and shared a shrug. Ryan could care less about the buying, and really even the shopping. One of the main points of conversation he had been excited about was singing, dancing, and some baseball talk, though he made Harry swear to never mention that to Sharpay.

Overall, Harry was quite comfortable settling in with the Evans family. Sharpay, he was more than a little wary of, and it seemed like she could be a nice person…if it suited her. The rest of the family felt very warm with their welcome, though they all seemed to suit themselves to Sharpay's needs. He wasn't too sure about how he felt on all that.

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I think it is safe to say that Harry's main desire is to be accepted by his family, and then to defeat Voldemort after that. As such, this is how I think he would react around the prospective new family. I think he would be timid, shy, worried that he needs to do everything right.

**Two possible review topics that I would appreciate you opinion on:**

I will admit, I am not the biggest Sharpay fan, and I feel like her personality is almost reminiscent of one Draco Malfoy, as such, I will have Harry respond in a more mature way than he would to Malfoy, but still with that small level of dislike. He won't hate her, or be mean or anything like that because she is family, but I don't think the two of them will be friends, not much at least right at the beginning. If you think it should be otherwise and have a couple good qualities for me to drag out of her, please let me know. I don't want to cast her in a bad light, but I wasn't able to find too much redeeming off the top of my head except dedication to things that she likes.

Ryan is another matter, in the first movie he seems like a complete idiot more or less. Not worth much past his looks or talents. He was slow and dimwitted ie. "Go-dray, go-dra? Go-drame?" enough said. Second movie, he came out of his shell much more and was a much stronger character, much more in his element, I felt, with choreography and being away from his twin sister. That is what I want to bring out of him in this movie. He will still mostly be submissive to Sharpay, because he hasn't had anything to set him apart from her yet, such as Sharpay choosing Troy over him in the second movie. It won't change a lot, but he will probably seem like two different people at times in the story, and will struggle with that. Once again, thoughts or concerns on where I am thinking about going please let me know your thoughts.


	5. Chapter 5

Halfway through it, and Harry had already decided that this was simply the best summer he had ever had. He and Ryan had gotten to talk a few times when no one else was around, his parents were off doing work or spending time at the Lava Springs resort they owned which Harry and Ryan had visited a few times for a round of golf on the course, Harry discovered that he wasn't half bad though there was a lot more walking involved than he thought. Sharpay was either spending time at the resort or off shopping somewhere.

He and Sharpay were at a rocky point in their introductions to one another. They had spent some time around each other but that had not had the best light on it because she still hadn't gotten over his 'hideous disgrace of fashion'. He shrugged it off for the most part, figuring, or hoping rather, that she would come around in the end. When she heard that he had never sung or danced before, she had effectively made sure Harry knew that any further progress Harry wanted to make in their friendship would be instantly halted until at least two of those three issues were rectified so he was half way there after the shopping trip. She apparently only knew how to love through and because of fashion, song, or dance.

Harry had also talked with Hermione a few times, and got to talk with Ron once when Hermione was over visiting the Burrow on a day he happened to call. Ron hadn't shouted into his ear this time like he had when talking to Vernon a couple years back. During one of the conversations, Harry and Hermione decided he should claim that he was homeschooled, so that his confusion and wonder at the new school he would be attending would be explainable.

When Harry mentioned his 'worries' of being at a new and large school after having been homeschooled, Ryan jumped into explaining what kind of things to expect, the classes, how the rooms were situated through the buildings and just a general brush over of the school as a whole. Ryan also glazed over most of the subjects they had just finished studying the past year. For all the times Ryan acted dumb around Sharpay, Harry realized that Ryan was actually really smart, he just relied on Sharpay to do a lot of the more critical thinking for him because she had always been the more dominant of the two twins.

Harry returned to his room one night to see a package sitting on his bed. He walked over to it and saw a piece of parchment folded on the top of it. Opening it, he saw that is was a letter from Dumbledore.

_Harry,_

_Hope your time with your family has been refreshing and enjoyable. I had meant to contact you sooner, but alas, things took longer to straighten out than expected. Within the package this letter came with, there is a special Pensieve. It allows you to enter into a memory and remain in it for extended periods of time without any time being lost in the outside world. _

_Professor Flitwick had been kind enough to work on a few of the harder charms required. Because of his hard work, we have discovered a way to allow you to continue your classes at Hogwarts, while blending in to the Muggle world still. _

_I know that you wished to return for the school year, however, there are undercurrents and talks of plans for an attack on you while at school. The first thought was an attack on me, but it seems that Voldemort has become entirely fixated on removing you from existence whether it is by his own wand or not._

_Because of these rumors, we feel that it will be safest for you to remain out of the view of the public and no one would think to look in America in a Muggle school. I have already included memories from each of the professors of the lessons they have planned. I also included a few things I want to bring to your attention on the side of things as well._

_These packages will be sent by portkey, once a week. You will 'turn in' your assignments by placing your memories into the phials that had been sent and they will be returned as they are filled up. The pensieve will act like the Room of Requirements, imagine the things you need and they will appear within the memory, allowing you to do what you need._

_I wish you luck,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

Harry read over the note a few times, slowly taking it in. This was what Dumbledore had been talking about in his office at the end of the year. Harry nodded to himself and unwrapped a large bowl. Inside it was another parchment, explaining how to use the pensieve, and then a set of seven phials that already contained a silvery, liquid-like substance within them. Setting it all to the side, he laid down to sleep for the night, deciding to test it out the following day.

Harry had called Hermione and told her the news, what Dumbledore had sent him, how it worked and how his past couple of weeks had been since he had forgotten to give her a call for a while. When Hermione heard that he wouldn't be returning for the year, he heard her make a sound that he knew meant she would be spending a long time with her nose buried in a book until she figured out whatever question was bothering her. He wasn't able to get much more conversation out of her as her mind had taken to this new problem, whatever it was and so he told her goodbye and ended the call so that she could get to it.

Harry had come to understand that you didn't keep Hermione from getting her answers unless you had a _very_ good reason. She could be downright terrifying if she was refused the chance to get answers for too long. A couple days later, he decided it had been a smart choice. Much like he had found the large package with the penseive sitting on his bed, he found a smaller one on this particular day. He undid the wrapping and saw the words 'Call Hermione' written on a small piece of paper that was resting on top of a small mirror.

"Call Hermione?" he muttered, though it was apparently loud enough because the mirror rippled as if it was water for a few moments before it cleared and her saw Hermione's smiling face coming out of the mirror rather than his reflection.

Her face was absolutely bursting from the smile it was trying to contain, "So glad that it worked. Actually, I'm happier that you figured it out rather than actually calling me on your cell phone."

Harry blushed lightly, not wanting to tell her that it had been on accident. She explained that he could do the same thing to talk with Ron since she had given him the same thing. She told Harry that she had remembered Sirius mentioning the Marauders having something like this when they were in school.

A gleam worked its way into Hermione's eyes part of the way through the conversation and she moved around a bit while they were still talking. Hermione began muttering, what Harry guessed were spells, and then a few moments later, he had a second mirror sitting beside him. Catching on quickly, he picked it up and said, "Call Ron." Needless to say, Harry was up very late that night; talking to his two best friends and seeing their faces for the first time since school had let out.

Summer finally came to an end, Harry and Ryan had become decent friends, but there was still everything that happened between Ryan and Sharpay that Harry was a little worried about. Ryan had yet to really become his own person like he needed to be. The Weasley Twins were together, but separate. Sure, they may not be the…_best_ example for _normal _twins to follow, but they are their own people, neither overshadowing the other. They are equals in practically every manner. Ryan and Sharpay however, weren't, and Harry worried that a time would come where there was a split between the two that would hurt them because of the unbalanced relationship.

Ryan was slowly becoming a little more outspoken, and Sharpay would actually halfway listen to his suggestions, but she still made the final call, which was probably a good thing. No change would be bad, but too much change at once could be worse.

The three of them were going into their Junior year of high school. Classes actually started up the Tuesday after the weekend the three were enjoying at the Lava Springs Resort. Harry's skills with golf had increased to where he wouldn't be left in the dust while playing with the Evans family, but he was still no match for their skills. Harry's enrollment had been easy and he noticed he had a couple of the same classes as Ryan and Sharpay, but most were different.

That was the one major thing that Harry wasn't looking forward to. He had always had trouble fitting in at school. Primary school because of Dudley threatening kids to stay away from 'the freak' and then in Hogwarts because of the whole Boy-Who-Lived thing and being unable to tell if they like him for Harry or were just wanting to be friends with a famous person. He had been given a chance to be around people without those factors setting in and against him, but now he was worried if people would like him at all. The school would be so big and he really only knew Ryan and Sharpay.

Harry was forced to find out as Tuesday came much quicker than he had wanted it to and he was now standing in front of the large building, looking around at all the people, hanging out in their small groups of friends. Some were mingling between one or two but it all seemed very, set in place. Only a certain group of people hung out with other certain people that were like them, Harry thought it was almost like an unspoken house sorting.

There was a group of people who all held skateboards, another group, comprised only of girls in cheerleading outfits off to another side of the walkway leading to the school. A number of people wearing band shirts, others with glasses and overalls all huddled around books-Hermione would fit right in with them, on second thought, she would probably outclass them all. Everywhere he looked, he saw people that just seemed to fit, and try as he might, he couldn't figure out where he was supposed to fit. Sure, he had the nice clothes, but he didn't think the other rich kids would accept him straight away, nor was he sure he wanted to be placed with that group.

He was broken from his thoughts by Ryan cuffing him on the shoulder, "Come on Harry, you can stick with us since we have our first class together. We can stop by the front office and grab a map and I'll show you the best routes to get from one class to another." And so, with Ryan's arm slung around Harry's shoulder the two of them walked towards the front office while Sharpay went to the bathroom to check her clothes and hair.

Apparently, Ryan had Sharpay's schedule down so well that he said he could get back to the bathroom she was in after taking Harry to the office and helping him get comfortable with getting around. "She always spends about 15 minutes primping in the bathroom before first period. I'll get you settled in mostly and then go pick her up; she won't notice any difference." He claimed while leading Harry to the office.

The first half of the day passed in an easy manner. He didn't feel too far behind the curriculum at all and was able to keep up with his teachers and even offer a decent answer or two when called upon. He was able to get assimilated with the large mass of students because apparently, seeing a new student wasn't uncommon, as you may have just never had classes with them before. When lunch rolled around however, it became a different story. He entered the cafeteria and glanced around for Ryan and Sharpay, hoping he could at least sit with them for lunch rather than trying to find someone who would let him sit with them.

He found them on one of the upper levels and carried his lunch to where they were gathered with a couple other people. He moved in that direction and saw Ryan wave at him. Harry watched as Ryan turned to the side and talked to someone next to him for a few moments before turning back to look at Harry. Sharpay glanced at Harry and gave a half smile, and though it didn't quite reach her eyes, it as more than he was really expecting.

Harry reached the table the group was stationed around and smiled at the others sitting at the table with Ryan and Sharpay. Harry smiled as Ryan began to introduce him to everyone. Apparently they were not expecting him to speak out instead of Sharpay but quickly regained their composure and smiled and nodded at Harry when they were introduced. Harry answered the questions as he was asked, but his eyes continued to drift towards one girl that was sitting with them; Kelsi, he remembered her name was. There was…something that simply made it difficult for his eyes to stay away. One time, Ryan caught his eye and subtly made a motion at her and Harry brushed slightly before looking away again to focus his attention on another question that was being asked.

Kelsi was very qute, Harry had decided. She was wearing her air pulled back with a hat on and she had a very musician look to her in her dress style overall, though she seemed very shy and reserved. She also seemed to slightly flinch when Sharpay began to speak. Harry wondered to himself why so many people were so scared of Sharpay.

A few of Harry's answers had brought a smile to Kelsi's face, and he felt like his day was complete with that simple accomplishment. She had a small stack of sheet music in front of her and she was doodling around the corners when no one was talking to her. He noticed a few words written under some notes, but most of the page was absent of them.

Lunch ended and Harry gathered his things and stood to go to his next class. Harry noted, as he moved towards the doors leading from the cafeteria, that Kelsi was heading in the same direction as him. He paused for a few moments and then began walking once more when she was even with him, "So you're a composer?" He asked lightly. She jumped, startled by the question and walking partner for that matter.

She looked over at him and nodded slightly, apparently still unable to speak from the shock he had given her. "That's really cool, have you been doing that for a while?" Harry asked. Once again, she nodded and, after a couple seconds, finally spoke, "I have been writing songs for our school plays since last year. Sometimes I think they are good, but usually most people don't like them. " She said softly before looking down at the ground as they continued to walk to the next class of the day.

"Do you mind if I see?" He asked, holding out his hand towards the sheet music that was still clutched in her hands. She pulled back for a moment before looking at him. She sighed slightly and handed the papers to him. He chuckled, "I don't have any idea how to read this, what does the melody line sound like?"

Her face broke into a small, amused smile and she hummed it lightly for him. Harry read over the few words on the page and nodded his head. "Very catchy, soothing and I think the words fit the music really well. From the little I know of music at least." He laughed a little louder than before, "Then again, after spending a summer with Sharpay and Ryan I discovered just how little I really know."

"Have you known them very long? Ryan and Sharpay, I mean." She asked softly.

"No, I only met them this summer. I only just found out that they were related to me." Harry responded.

"Did your parents not tell you about them? Why are you living with them now? Well I'm assuming you live with them." She said and then got a shocked look on her face, apparently surprised by her own boldness to ask.

Harry snickered slightly at Kelsi's reaction before sobering some, "My parents were killed when I was a year old. My guardian placed me with my mom's sister and her family. They…weren't the nicest people in the world. An issue came up at the end of school last year and they weren't wi…able to take me back to stay with them. My guardian ended up finding the Evans family here in America and so I came here."

Kelsi gasped at his answer, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to—"

Harry smiled easily at her, "Easy, Kelsi. You didn't know, and I've accepted the fact that they're gone. I miss them, but I've talked to a few of their friends and it has helped. Don't worry." Harry looked around him for a moment, "Well, unless you have this class then this is where I leave you." He said while turning to face Kelsi.

She shook her head and looked a little further down the hall from where they stood, "My class is down there." She said before looking back at Harry.

"Well, I hope you have a good class and if I don't see you again, that the rest of school goes well for you. It was nice meeting you Miss Nielsen, thanks for keeping me company on the way here." Harry said with a slight bow and smile before turning to the classroom behind him and walking in the room. Kelsi blushed slightly before turning to rush off towards her class, making it in to her seat a few seconds before the bell rang.

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So I wrote these first five chapters within two days of starting the story, and I was really proud of myself until I realized that these chapters are a fraction of the length of my normal chapters from my other fic. I wasn't quite so proud of myself after that. But I was still happy that the story was flowing so good.

I had meant to have this up by six but I got home at six after being at the church reworking our sound system starting at 9am, and then I had to go make a grocery run for my mom so that she could cook dinner but it is up now. Thanks to all of you who have voted on the poll or sent PM's or reviews. We'll get this worked out shortly at this pace. :) If you haven't voted on the poll yet, take a few moments and go vote, please and thanks.


	6. Chapter 6

As promised, Chapter 6, thank you to all those who reviewed and voted. The poll is soon to be closed and now we are about to be on the way with the story. This will probably be the only update for the week. Sorry that it will take so long before the next update, but, it will be up within the next two weeks for sure. As usual thanks for reading, and I don't own. Enjoy!

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The rest of the school day passed easily. Harry felt confident in his understanding of the classes and he was getting exciting to continue working more on the memories Dumbledore had sent him. Hermione had told Harry what he needed to do to get the two mirrors she had sent him to join into one piece that swung on a hinge, keeping the two mirrors separate but connected. He had talked with his two best friends a few times with it and felt more and more relaxed in his new environment since he was able to keep such close contact with his friends.

Harry's days began to fall into a very similar pattern, morning classes, lunch with Ryan and Sharpay, though after a while, he began moving around the cafeteria, seeing people he had become acquainted with in his classes and deciding to sit with them. The most constant part of his day, however, was the walk from the cafeteria to his first afternoon class, during which he talked with Kelsi.

The two had connected extremely easily. Something about the other made both of them more open to talking. Kelsi had gotten over most of her shyness around Harry and was helping carry the conversation more, though she was still extremely quite around the drama and music group that she mostly stuck around. She had moved around with Harry a couple times, but after two days of sitting with different people, she went back to just sitting around Ryan and Sharpay's group.

Harry had discovered, much to the chagrin of Sharpay that he didn't really fit into any of the premade, stereotypical groups. He had friends from each of them and was easily able to move from one such group to another, though he didn't quite understand most of what the skaterdudes were talking about.

He had a little trouble at first with Math, trying to work with Arithmancy's formulas rather than Arithmetic, confusing his teacher to no end of how he came up with half of his answers. The resulting sessions with tutors from the Scholastic Club helped build a foundation of camaraderie and friendship between him and a few of the members.

Once he got the hang of how to return it, Harry was able to become a masterful volleyball player, his reflexes from Quidditch coming in handy with returning wheat most might think to be an unreturnable ball or unstoppable spike. Earning him a bit of respect with some of the sports jocks of the school.

The drama club easily accepted him, but more so because he was related to Ryan and Sharpay, the Co-Presidents for the Drama club than anything he had done. Sure, Harry could act, but he didn't know even a fraction of the Broadway shows or plays that they were talking about and certainly not the actors. Harry watched and listened as people complained about someone being casted as a character, gushed over the amazing talents of so-and-so, or daydreamed about a certain person playing a specific role. Harry quickly drowned them out, deciding to talk to Kelsi who told him she was more focused on the composers and musicians in the shows they were talking about rather than the actors themselves.

Harry's pensieve lessons were moving along easily. He had been hard pressed a few times to get everything done on time since he often forgot to do his lessons through the week, either being caught up doing the homework from the high school or talking with Ron, Hermione, Ryan or Kelsi.

It was Kelsi that Harry began to spend more time with. He had been walking with a group of people that he had recently become acquainted with when they passed a room that Harry didn't usually go past and Harry heard someone in the room playing and singing softly. He waved to the people he had been walking with and moved closer to the door. He found Kelsi sitting at the piano with her sheet music out with a pencil and a huge eraser sitting next to it. He softly opens the door and slips inside; sitting in one of the chairs near the door and just relaxing as she stopped and restarted from what he guessed was the beginning.

"It's hard to believe, that I couldn't see, you were always right beside me. Thought I was alone, with no one to hold, but you were always right beside me…" She sang before falling silent though she continued to play, moving her fingers smoothly over the keys. She hummed a melody line while she played after a couple moments, sometimes going back to a part of the song and mumbling to herself before shaking her head and huffing.

Harry sat back in his chair and continued listening, though something was itching at the back of his skull, trying to get to the front. He continued to listen as he waited for it to come to the front so he could understand what it was that was bugging him. After playing a few more times through the area she was struggling with, it finally made itself clearer, when she played it through again, he tried to follow a bit closer to the notes she was playing, and decided that to his untrained ear, it sounded decent and decided to speak up.

He coughed slightly to make her aware of his presence. "Don't mean to intrude, or assume, but what if you changed it to…" he hummed what had been in his head. Kelsi had jumped when he had made a noise and stared at him in shock before blushing and smiling slightly, turning to the piano and starting to play before turning back to him, "Do that one more time?" She asked, motioning with her head for him to move closer.

Harry walked over towards the piano and hummed the line while she played through the progression again. When it ended she nodded her head, picking up her eraser and wiping the old notes from her page. She was halfway finished before dropping the eraser back on the piano and moving her hands to the keys again, "That is better, but what about this?" She changed a few chords around and hummed the newly inspired melody.

Harry shrugs, "Sure, I don't really know where that bit came from, but it seemed to fit to me. Yours works much better I think from the little I have heard and know. I only just recently really started listening to music. Didn't have much of a chance to before now." He said easily and Kelsi dropped her pencil from where she was marking the changes.

"How did you live this long?" She asked in amazement.

Harry shrugged again, "I've asked myself that question more than a few times. I'll let you know when I figure that out." He replied, not feeling like explaining he meant literally staying alive and not because of the absence of music.

It was one of the downsides of living with all of these non-magical people. It felt like he was constantly lying to them. There were questions they asked that he simply could not answer them honestly on because it would break the Statute of Secrecy. He sighed sorrowfully to himself.

"Have you ever written music before?" Kelsi asks after a few moments, hoping that she could have a new friend and helper for writing all the music for school plays, deciding that have Harry help her would be very…enjoyable. She may not have known him more than a few weeks, but he seemed like a really sweet guy. Caring and wanting to just be a good friend to anyone and everyone that would have him. Then again he hadn't listened to music much before. Her mind jumped back to the question she had just asked and almost hit herself, "Sorry, dumb question since you just told me you hadn't listened to much music before. I guess you don't play any instruments or anything either do you?" She asked, half-hoping that he may have for some obscure reason.

He shook his head, no. "Though I did get a hand-carved, wooden flute from a friend of mine, I didn't play it very well at all, but it did calm a dog." He said with a playful smirk as he thought back to his run in with Fluffy.

Kelsi nodded before focusing back on the piano, "How long had you been in here before you got my attention?" She asked. Harry could see her blushing slightly and decided to take it easy on her. "Only a minute or so, not very long. Though I will say that you have a very pretty voice." He said encouragingly.

She blushed more noticeably this time before muttering, "Thanks." She straightened some after a couple seconds and smiled over at him, "I'm better at piano though, I don't like to sing much. Ever sing before?" She asked, eying him intently.

"Umm, no, I doubt I can sing. The sound change that I suggested was just luck. My mind usually doesn't work that way. I…uh, no. I-I don't think I can sing." He finished, stuttering slightly. He had never been a part of the Hogwarts choir under Flitwick's tutelage; then again, he had never really tried... Still eying him intently, Kelsi hums to herself. She glances at the clock to check the time and her eyes widen slightly before tuning back to look at Harry. "We'll talk more later, I'm in here most days during this time so you're welcome to stop in whenever, but for now, its almost time for next period. The bell should be ringing in the next minute."

She turns and gathers her things while Harry waits to the side smiling lightly, "As long as you promise to not make me sing, I think I could stop in a few times." He says jokingly. She laughs softly and shakes her head slightly, "No promises, but I won't try to force you."

"Deal."

"But I will beg and plead until I at least hear a little bit. Your humming was in key and on the beats they should be, so there is at least a small amount of dormant talent there, even if you haven't tapped it yet. If we could work you onto an instrument of some kind, that would be even better, singing voice or not." She says, mostly to herself in a contemplative manner. Harry reaches the door before her, opens it, and allows her to go through first with an over-exaggerated bow. Pulled from her thoughts by his actions she laughs in amusement and reaches back to pull him alongside her. She is halfway through the pull before her eyes widen slightly and she instantly releases his sleeve and drops her hand to her side.

"You okay Kelsi?" Harry asked worriedly, not sure what just happened.

"I-I'm sorry, I…I didn't mean to, you know, grab your shirt like that…I didn't mess it up, did I?" She made a few more noises that sounded like her trying to speak, but her face and eyes seemed to show that she was horrified, embarrassed, and shocked by her actions.

Harry reached over to her and placed a hand on her arm, smiling softly, "Kelsi, calm down. It's just a shirt, don't worry about it, I'm not upset or anything about that. Just, be yourself around me, okay? Don't treat me like I'm Ryan or Sharpay or anyone else and don't think that…that you have to be someone else. I'm usually not this blunt and forward, but I can tell you are a shy kind of person." He said softly, looking at her and pausing for a moment. She blushed with the faintest of smiles while nodding.

Harry nodded back, "Well, shy seemingly anytime when you aren't playing piano. You were playing most of the time we were talking and it seemed like it calmed you down some. Listen," He says as he starts moving them down the hallway again, knowing they had classes in the same area before lunch came around. "I don't have any expectations or ideas that you have to live up to, or exceed or anything like that. Be the you that you are when you are playing piano, because that girl, is a girl I want to get to know, I can tell that that is the real you." He looked around after he finished talking and noticed they were among some of the few students left in the hallways. "Now as you said, it's almost time for our next class, so we better hurry. See you at lunch?" He asked.

Kelsi nodded, her face settling somewhere between embarrassment, deep thought and happiness. The pair turned from each other and quickly made their way to their separate classrooms, thinking about the new free-period tradition they hoped they had just started.

Harry's mind refused to stay on his history lecture that period, floating off towards the cute composer he had slowly become closer friends with. Ryan had talked some about her, mentioning that she did a good job composing, but always said that she didn't add in quite enough flair on most songs, though he also said that Sharpay was adamant in every production at the school that they had their rehearsal pianist write their own rendition of the pieces. Ryan had shrugged and said, "Sometimes I wish we had kept the songs the way Kelsi did them, but I guess it is worth it to keep Sharpay happy."

Kelsi on the other hand couldn't concentrate because she was working to calm back down from almost hyperventilating. She had thought back over the conversation with Harry during free period and the walk to class and was amazed at how…open she was, how easy it was to talk to Harry. Maybe he was right, she had been playing most of the time they were talking so maybe playing the piano did calm her down. She thought she would die of embarrassment when she had reached out and was about to drag him along behind her as if it was nothing. He had calmed her down some, but she had never acted that way around anyone else.

What stood out to her most though, was what he said before they went to their classrooms. He wanted to get to know her. Her! Some silly, short, composer whose pieces were never good enough for the shows and was just…plain. There wasn't anything special about her, and yet he wanted to get to know her. The thought that he was just trying to butter her up like some guys had done before crossed her mind, but she threw that out the window almost instantly. Of the little she knew of him, she knew for sure that Harry's character and moral compass wouldn't allow him to do that. He had shown that many times, even when most people probably wouldn't notice what he had done.

She had finally calmed down halfway through the lesson, but that didn't mean she was able to concentrate any better. There was something about him saying he wanted to know the girl who was playing the piano that stuck with her…it was so nice to be seen; to be heard, even when you may have been trying to cover your true self up. Harry had apparently seen through her shyness in that moment, and he wanted to get to know that side of her. She hadn't even said all that much. Her mind drifted back to the new line of melody they had created. She pushed her schoolbooks to the side and pulled out the score sheet again and began humming softly to herself as she waited for the period to end so that she could get to lunch. She hadn't eaten breakfast that morning so her tummy was growling…

Finally the bell rang, Kelsi had already packed all of her things into her bag and was out of the classroom quickly. As she walked through the halls, she hummed a little louder to herself, making her way to the cafeteria and ignoring the strange looks she was getting from a few people. She made her way through the line quickly, grabbing the food she wanted and then made her way to the normal table the group she sat with was usually stationed at. She starts eating to get her stomach to stop growling and is startled back to focus when a tray is set down next to her, "Just to let you know, I couldn't concentrate all of last hour because that melody was stuck in my head, thanks a lot." Harry said as he took a seat next to her.

She turned to look at him with a horrified look on her face and was about to start apologizing…until she saw the smile spread across her face. She fake pouted before hitting him on the arm, "That's not nice." She mumbled while Harry laughed softly.

"Here's the deal though, you have to finish the song. I heard that the only way to get a song to not be stuck in your head is go all the way through it. Apparently the song gets stuck in your head if you can't remember parts of the song. So yeah, you need to finish writing it." Harry said playfully, elbowing her arm lightly before starting in on the food on his plate.

"I think you should help me." She blurted out after a second and blushed before turning to look at her food, her fork moving a few pieces of food back and forth. "If you want to. It was nice…" she took a slow deep breath in, "Nice having someone to bounce things off of. I mean." She said, blushing deeper before deciding to just stop talking.

A couple seconds of silence pass and she looks up, expecting him to start making fun of her. He was working on chewing the food he had in his mouth though and held up his hand for her to wait a second.

"Sounds great." He said after swallowing, "You usually in that room during free period?" Harry asked. Kelsi stared at him for a few moments, he was being serious, Kelsi realized, answer him stupid! She yelled at herself, "Umm, y-yeah. Most days, I don't have much else to do between classes."

Harry nods, "Is that the only piece you're working on right now?" He asks and then looks up as other people start sitting down at the table with them.

"Umm, no, I-I've started a few others, but they aren't that g—" She said but Harry cut her off.

"Nope, none of that. I am sure they sound just as good as the one I heard today and that one was great." Harry said firmly before giving her a kind smile and dropping into a whisper, "Don't sell yourself short Kelsi, your height does that for you well enough on its own." He finished with a wink before leaning back and starting up a conversation with one of the other people at the table while Kelsi worked hard to keep the glare in place at him. He glanced over and winked again, effectively breaking the stare.

Lunch passed easily, as did the rest of the day, and when school let out, Harry planned to enjoy his weekend, though doing what exactly, he wasn't sure. He had gotten a few days ahead of schedule with Hogwarts classes so he didn't have much to worry about there and he thought that Mr. and Mrs. Evans were going to be going out of town. An entire weekend with Ryan _and_ Sharpay didn't seem too…exciting, so maybe he could find something else to…Kelsi, maybe she was free to hang out sometime.

He glanced around himself, got his bearings and then rushed towards the area of the parking lot Kelsi usually parked in. It was one of the random facts he had picked up about her on their walks to class after lunch. She always parked in the very northeast corner of the parking lot so that she could watch the sun come up. She was very much an early bird, getting to the school early enough to get the spot she wanted every day since she didn't enjoy being home to much.

Harry set off at a brisk pace to try to catch her before she had a chance to pull out of the parking lot. Sure he could call her, but there was something that he liked better about talking face to face with someone rather than just hearing their voice. The few times he had caught a glimpse of that part of the parking lot, it looked like her car was still there. When he arrived, it was still there, but Kelsi wasn't in it. He waited around for a while, but didn't see her coming from the building, and most of the cars were gone now.

Harry was glad he had ridden the bike the Evans had bought him to school this morning so that Ryan and Sharpay weren't waiting for him, but he wasn't sure why Kelsi was taking so long. He decided to take a seat on the curb next to the car and let his mind go back to the song Kelsi had been working on that day. It was about twenty minutes after school let out that he finally saw her.

The wind had picked up some while he had been waiting and Harry could see Kelsi fighting to keep all of her papers together, he stood up and quickly made his way over to where she was but she apparently lost a handle on a large portion of the stack and at least fifteen papers took to the wind. Harry began to run over to where Kelsi was standing. She stood stock still for a few seconds before she set her books down on top of the remaining papers she had managed to hold on to and she started chasing down the flyaway papers.

Changing his direction, harry turned to chase another grouping of the papers. After missing more than a few times, Harry became frustrated and, after checking to be sure Kelsi's attention was elsewhere, he summoned the papers that he was close to, back to himself. A number of papers had caught the wind in a way that they were blown a few yards up into the air and he cast a small weight charm on them so that they slowly made their way back to the ground. After enjoying a few laughs at their attempts to stop the rest of the papers (in mostly muggle fashion for Harry) they were able to make their way back to the pile of books and papers Kelsi had left halfway to her car.

"Thanks for the help, again Harry. You have a knack for being around when you're needed today, it seems." She says with a smile as Harry hands the sheets of paper to her.

"Looks like we need to get you some binders for those." He said with a light joking tone to his voice.

"Probably, I just haven't had much of a chance to get any yet." She motions towards her car. "I'm guessing you were waiting for me?" She says inquisitively. "I would hate to have you making Ryan and Sharpay wait around just so you could help me gather up these papers." She says before looking over her shoulder for where the Evans limo usually sat, waiting for Ryan and Sharpay to get out of class.

"Nope, I rode my bike here, so they went on home. Listen," Harry rubs the back of his neck embarrassedly for a few moments before just pressing forward, "I don't have much to do this weekend, and I was wondering if you would like to go hang out. I haven't made many other friends around here aside from the Evans, but…as much as I love them, I don't think I would survive around the Twins on my own the entire weekend."

Kelsi's eyes widened and she began to stutter slightly, "S-sure. Umm, what…what would you want to do?" She asked.

Letting out a soft sigh of relief Harry looked around, and smirked a bit as he relaxed once more, "How about we go get you some binders, and then maybe, if you want, we could work a little more on those songs. I really enjoyed that today."

Kelsi smiled widely at him, a blush still visible on her cheeks, "I would be okay with that. Sunday afternoon work or you?" She asked cheerily.

Harry nods, "That works fine for me. So, uh. I guess I'll see you Sunday then." Harry finished awkwardly.

"Yeah" Kelsi replies with the same awkwardness.

"Cool, well, um, have a nice day." Harry waved, ready for the awkward moment to end and her walked back towards where he had parked his bike. Kelsi waved as she drove past, heading for the parking lot exit. He made it to his bike, undid the chain and then hopped on and started his ride home.


	7. Chapter 7

Saturday was mostly uneventful. Harry was, as he had hoped he wouldn't be, drug to the stores to do more shopping with the Evans twins. Ryan was decent and at least found _something_ nice to say about some of Harry's choices, but whether Ryan though he did an okay job or not, Sharpay would either sigh in frustration or half shriek when she saw him before claiming that he had to change out of the clothes immediately and that she couldn't been seen with someone who had such little fashion sense as to wear _that_ together.

The first few times Harry had just brushed it off and went along to appease her. The multiple times following that, he tried to do better with her choices but became increasingly annoyed and grumbled each time as he spun to go back to the dressing room to get different colored jeans, or shirt, or shoes, or even belt at Sharpay's command. By halfway through the trip however, he took on more of a fashion dummy or zombie, throwing on whatever was closest and walking out before turning around to go change into whatever Sharpay said.

After Harry made a couple trips back to the changing room in his state, Ryan subtly nudged Sharpay with the idea that Harry had enough new clothes to last the week and that she should check out some new things for herself after all the 'hard work' she put into Harry's wardrobe.

She gleefully agreed with the idea and disappeared with one of her fashion personel that she had hired and had, a short time ago, sent running through the store for more clothes for Harry to try on. Ryan received a grateful and tired smile from Harry and smirked evilly in return. While Ryan wasn't as much into clothes, there was a favorite store of his not too far from the clothes store Sharpay would likely spend the rest of her day in and he eagerly led Harry in that direction. Suffice it to say that Harry didn't know it was possible for an entire store to be made up of hats.

Harry would later work to suppress the memories of the entire day with his occlumency, though he did try to commit to memory what styles Sharpay had told him to wear together so that she wouldn't yell at him later.

Harry dropped tiredly into his bed, forgoing hanging his clothes up in his closet, though he knew he would face the wrath of Sharpay for it later, he was simply too tired to do anything else that night.

He awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and lively, bright and early and decided to go downstairs and talk with Cathy and lend a hand with breakfast if she needed some help as had become his morning habit. He was usually confined to just setting the table, though Cathy would often teach him a few other ways to cook things when he asked questions about what she was doing.

After eating breakfast, Harry let Mrs. Evans know that he was going to spend the day at a friend's house, Mr. Evans was away on a business trip, and was out of the house before they twins even woke up even though it was nearing ten in the morning. Harry had asked Phillip to give him a ride in one of the less flashy cars the family owned since he wasn't due to get his driver's license until next week after he watched Hermione's memory of learning how to drive herself the year prior. Harry walked up to the door of Kelsi's house and knocked and he thought he could hear screaming and laughing inside the house. He waited a few moments before a very ruffled Kelsi opened the door with a little boy and girl wrapped around separate legs. Her face was flushed and her hair was more than a little wild. When she saw Harry standing there with an amused smile she blushed deeply.

"Hey, Harry. Umm, I'm really sorry but I can't go with you this morning. My mom had to leave early this morning for an emergency at work and Dad works nights so he is sleeping right now so I can't leave. I'm so sorry that you came all the way here. Oh! I hope you didn't ride your bicycle here, I was going to text you but—"

Harry chuckled lightly, "Kels, calm down. It isn't a problem. I had Phillip give me a ride. What time does your mom get off work?" He asked while smiling kindly at the two children. They smiled shyly and the little boy waved which Harry returned.

"Around three or four, you could probably come back then and have dinner with us and we could work on the song then if you would like." She said, trying to subtly straighten her hair and keep the blush off her face. She watched as Harry nodded and then looked back down at her little brother, "Oh, I'm sorry, this is Kevin, who is four and Macy, who is three. We were playing a game I grew up playing with my parents. They love it, though they can be a handful sometimes." She said lovingly as she ruffled both of the kids' hair.

Kevin spoke up, "Do you want to play?" His eyes alight with joy at the prospect of a new friend and Harry's smile widened at the sight. He began nodding before Kelsi caught his eye and mouthed, 'You don't have to.' Harry smiled at her and gave a quick wink before squatting down and looking at Kevin, "I would love to, Kevin, what is the game?"

"Tackle the Troll!" He exclaimed before leaping onto Harry unexpectedly with his arms wrapped around his neck. Harry laughed in surprise, wrapping his arms around the young boy to make sure he didn't get hurt as Harry fell from the loss of balance.

Still laughing, Harry sat up with the boy still wrapped around him. He turned his head so that he could look at Phillip who had been watching the exchange quietly though he too had a smile on his face, "I'll be staying here Phillip, thanks for the ride. If you don't mind I'll call you later so that you can pick me up?" Harry asked.

"Actually, Mr. Phillip, My dad can give Harry a ride home on his way in to work," she turned to Harry, "If that is fine with you?" She asked him. Harry nodded and then shrugged to Phillip whose reply was only to chuckle before he climbed into the car and made his way back to the Evans' home.

"So they usually play this game with you?" Harry asked as he began tickling Kevin who, until this point, hadn't let loose of Harry. At Kelsi's nod he chuckled, "You're not tall enough to be a troll." _'Trust me, I would know,_' He smirked to himself. "And much too pretty." He stated as an afterthought. She blushed and mumbled a thank you before she turned and waved him into the house.

Harry scooped up Kevin who was still giggling from Harry's tickling and walked into the house. It was a decent sized house, slightly larger than the Dursley's but much more welcoming and warm. Toys were scattered about the living room and Harry could tell from the cleared space where Kelsi and the kids had been playing the game. The quartet moved into the living room and continued the game for a while before Kevin and Macy decided to regale Harry with very long, disconnected and random stories about whatever came to their young minds.

Harry was almost constantly found laughing at the pure energy and excitement the pair had and was amazed at how easily Kelsi was able to keep up with them after he had requested to sit out of one of their games to catch his breath. He glanced at the clock and found that it was nearing one. He turned his focus back to the three siblings when Macy stopped jumping around for a couple moments and got Kelsi's attention, "Sissy, I'm hungry." She said cutely. Kelsi's eyes went wide and her mouth formed an "o" in surprise before she glanced at Harry and he could see he gears racing in her head.

"Okay, Macy, how about you and Kevin start picking up your toys and I will go see what I can find for us to eat." She quickly turned from the room and went towards the kitchen, muttering to herself.

Harry watched the kids for a couple seconds as they started, surprisingly, picking up the toys and placing them in a couple of boxes that Harry had almost tripped over a few times while playing some of their games. He followed Kelsi's path and found her rummaging through the cabinets. The refrigerator and a few cabinet doors were left wide open as she continued to search.

"Problems?" He asked as he moved fully into the kichen. She turned around sheepishly and nodded. "Not used to cooking?" He asked again. She gave a short laugh and shook her head; "We are out of deli meat so I can't make sandwiches like I normally would. Mom usually fixes something before she leaves but it was such short notice that she just didn't have time. I can't even cook if I followed directions. Maybe I could order out something? Dad doesn't like me to, but…" She huffed and her shoulders slumped slightly.

"Do you mind…if, would it be okay…umm, would you like me to cook for you all? Do you think that would be okay?" Harry asked shyly, not wanting to offend her or get her in trouble.

"You can cook?" She asked, slightly surprised, "That would be wonderful! Mom even has trouble sometimes to cook without burning things sometimes so even if you cause a few problems, it won't be anything we can't handle. You do actually know _how_ to cook though right? I can mess something up just as well as the next person, I'll have you know." She said with a playful tone, though she was still dubious as to whether he could actually cook or not.

Harry chuckled for a second though he took on a mockingly serious face, "I can take my cooking skills elsewhere you know." He said though he ultimately broke into a grin. He glanced around at all the still open doors and took in the ingredients he could see. He nodded and looked back at her, "What do you say to some grilled cheese and tomato soup? You and the kiddos in there going to be okay with that?" He asked. Seeing her nod in affirmation, he began moving around the kitchen grabbing bread, cheese, and the assorted ingredients he used in his personal version of tomato soup.

Kelsi went to the living room to help her brother and sister finish picking up the living room before leading them back into the kitchen and having them wash their hands so that they could be ready to eat. She watched as Harry quickly prepared the food and was amazed at how well he moved through the kitchen, "How long have you been cooking Harry?" She asked as he quickly finished prepping the ingredients for the soup and started mixing them all together while keeping a close eye on the slices of bread that he was warming on a griddle.

"Oh, probably ten or eleven years. Over the years, I have grown to enjoy it more, especially now that I live with the Evans family. I get up early and go spend some time with Cathy, the lady who cooks for them and she shows me a few tricks and different ways to cook things. It has been so great getting to learn more things from her. It is almost calming to me." Harry replied while he stirred the soup before turning to flip over the bread and lay slices of cheese on a few of them.

"Do you think you might do that as a career?" She asked, never having known he had been cooking that long or enjoyed it that much.

Harry hesitated for a few moments before answering, as truthfully as he could, "I haven't ever really looked past the next few years or so for my life. There are things I…that are out of my control that need to be resolved first and I haven't really been able to see past them. Too much that is left up to chance." He paused for a few more moments, "But I think I would enjoy it. I'll have to think about it more some other time. For now though, it is time to eat!" He said, trying to get her mind off of that topic.

He really hadn't thought much past the ultimate necessity of him defeating Voldemort, even more so now than before because of the prophecy. He couldn't tell her about all that though since she was not a part of the magical world. He sighed internally as he kept a smile on his face while dropping a sandwich onto Kevin and Macy's plates, one on Kelsi's at her request, and two on his own before going back to the stove and spooning out a few bowls and taking them to the table.

"This smells yummy!" Kevin said excitedly and Macy hummed in agreement.

Kelsi tried some of his soup and smiled at the flavor, "This tastes wonderful, Harry. Where did you find this recipe?" She asked, "I need to show this to mom."

Harry blushed slightly, "I made it. My cousin wanted soup one evening but my aunt and uncle woul…couldn't get out to buy some canned soup so I had to make it from scratch. Trust me, the first batch didn't turn out anywhere near this good. That is something I have learned about cooking, the more you do it, the better you will become." He said and Kelsi nodded.

Kelsi's dad, Terrence, woke up part of the way through them eating and came in commenting on how good the food smelled before stopping at the sight of Harry sitting at the table. He blinked a couple times and Kelsi quickly worked to chew the bite of sandwich she had just taken, "Good morning dad." She said and he turned to smile at the joke the two of them had going. It was technically afternoon now, but it was more or less morning for him.

He raised a questioning eyebrow at her and she blushed, "Dad, this is Harry Potter, the guy I told you I was going to be hanging out with today. Harry, this is my Dad, Terrence Nielsen." Harry stood up and offered his hand to the man, "It is nice to meet you sir, I hope you don't mind me being here, Kevin had asked me to play a game with him shortly after I arrived and I couldn't turn him down." Harry said and Terrence saw over the young man's shoulder as Kevin beamed a large smile at him.

Terrence shook Harry's hand while chuckling, "It is nice to meet you as well, Harry. Kelsi, did you cook this?" He asked while going over to the stove where the soup was still sitting.

"No, you know I can't cook to save my life. Harry offered to cook for us since I know you don't really like us calling in food and mom had to leave in such a rush." She said and Terrence turned to look at Harry for a few seconds before nodding and dipping out some soup for himself and putting it into the microwave to reheat as well as one of the spare grilled cheese sandwiches.

"I'll clean up once I am done eating sir." Harry said and Terrence tried to wave him off but Harry shook his head, "I made the mess sir, even if it was to cook you guys food, I will be the one to clean it up. It is how I was raised." _'More or less'_ he amended internally.

Terrence once again looked at Harry with an odd look before nodding once more. He also caught out of the corner of his eye that Kevin and Macy were looking at him with looks of adoration and couldn't help but hope that they would take after this well-mannered young man he had just met. He also noticed that Kelsi had a strange look in her eyes but passed that off to him still being a little sleepy. The complimented Harry on his cooking skills and was even more amazed by them when Kelsi mentioned that Harry had made the soup from scratch.

Harry quickly cleaned up the small amount of mess he made while cooking and placed the leftovers into containers that were then put into the refrigerator. Harry and Kelsi then scooped up Kevin and Macy and took them to their rooms since both had begun to yawn from all the activity from the morning. The two children quickly settled in and fell asleep shortly after being laid down and Harry and Kelsi tiptoed out of the two bedrooms and gave each other a smile as they met in the hallway of the rooms.

Harry began to move back towards the living room when Kelsi caught his arm and shook her head before nodding farther down the hallway and turning to walk in that direction, leaving Harry to follow her. At the very end of the hall, Kelsi opened a door that led into a small room, though still larger than the room the Dursleys had given Harry after his cupboard. There was a small sofa, a couple comfortable looking chairs and a piano and guitar situated in the room.

"The walls and door are soundproofed more or less so I can come in here and play whenever I want to without worrying about waking up the rest of the house. So how about we get down to the real reason you're here?" She turned to move towards the piano as he moved to sit in one of the chairs when she abruptly stopped and turned to give him a hug. "Thank you, by the way. You really didn't have to stay and play with my siblings, and you did a wonderful job cooking. Those two things alone made my day a hundred times easier. Have you been around many younger kids like that before?" She asked.

"Not really, there are some at my school, but none younger than eleven. They have so much energy though. They both have such great stories to tell too. I loved it. Thanks for letting me hang out with you three; it is easy to see you love them, they seem like great kids." Harry replied easily while he gave her a tight hug back. He heard her take in a deep breath before she quickly stepped back and turned to the piano though he thought he caught a faint blush on her cheeks. He thought that he was probably blushing as well.

She sat on the bench and pulled the sheet music from the top of the piano and situated them in front of her before she turned to wave Harry to move his chair closer. He pulled his chair close enough so that he could see the paper, though it didn't mean much for him, as he was unable to read music.

She played through a little of the song that he knew and then continued into the parts he hadn't heard yet. Harry closed his eyes as he listened to her play. There was something about the way that she played that seemed to make the piano itself sing. He could hear the emotion flowing in the song while she played. The song was slow, but there was a hopeful emotion to it almost; it was like an idea that had come to full realization. Harry was so lost in listening that he didn't even notice that he had begun to hum along with it. Kelsi paused for a half second when she heard him starting to hum but continued on without a noticeable interruption and Harry continued to hum. A large part of the melody was…all right, but there were some pieces that called out to her like shinning jewels. She focused in on the parts that she liked and played through it a few times getting the new melody stuck in her head so that when she stopped playing she could write it down.

After a few minutes of playing through the song she slowly stopped playing and picked up her pencil to start writing things in on the sheet music. After a few seconds, Harry opened his eyes. "So, you figure out some more for it? It sounded really good to me so far."

Kelsi chuckled, "Yeah, thanks for the help. You were humming some really good melody lines, quite a few actually. They felt like they fit in the song really well. You sure you haven't done anything with music before?" She asked.

Harry blushed and looked back at the sheet music, "I didn't…um, I didn't realize I was humming and yes, I'm sure I haven't done anything with music before. What is this song supposed to be about, or for? This is for the Winter Musical right?"

Kelsi nodded, "Yeah, it's called Twinkle Town. Mrs. Darbus hasn't really released the script yet but I suppose since you're helping me out that I can tell you. But! You cannot mention anything about it to Ryan or Sharpay. Promise?" She asked though she knew she could trust him. There was just something about him that made him seem so open and trustworthy. Harry nodded in reply and she turned and sat with her legs straddling the piano bench and launched into the plot and what she had to write as songs to fill in through the musical. The next half hour was spent with the two of them talking about the musical and what all she was thinking about song wise so that Harry would feel comfortable enough to give input on the songs.

The pair ended up getting distracted and stopped working on the music. Instead they talked more with each other and Kelsi finally got Harry to sing, after more than a few minutes telling him she wouldn't laugh at him no matter what, "Besides," She had said, "You are able to hum on key so you should be fine with singing once you get used to it."

Needless to say, she was impressed. She had played a couple of the popular songs that were on the radio right now and he sang along when he could remember the words. He was a little rough around the edges, especially for a musical, but there was plenty of potential and talent just waiting to be tapped into. Kelsi figured that she could teach him guitar, take him to a coffee shop and turn him loose on the people there and he would make a killing in tips. His voice was smooth and easy to listen to, though there was a distinct uniqueness to it she hadn't heard before. She swore to herself to not let the semester end without helping him get better at singing.

_His voice!_ She gushed internally. It sounded so wonderful. Just enough of his British accent came through to be noticeable, but it didn't make the words hard to understand. He was a little nasally, but that was easily remedied, and if he opened his mouth a little more, he would have a gorgeous tone to his voice. She made a quick list of things that she knew he could do to help his voice sound a little better.

From what she could tell, he only needed a little direction vocally and some practice and he would be on level with Ryan, if not better. She decided to see what he thought about really learning to sing, "Harry, you have a really good voice. It wouldn't take much to get it to the best it can be. If…if you want I…I could, you know, give you some lessons, or something…" She had started speaking before the thought that maybe he wouldn't want to be around her that much came to her mind. When it did she wanted to just stop talking and not bring it up but it was too late now.

She had looked down at her hands as she trailed off at the end so she didn't see Harry's smile spread across his face at her words, "I would love to. If you really think that I can learn to sing better." He replied, though he wasn't too sure he could actually sing _that_ good. _'Anything to hang around you a little more often…' _He thought to himself at the end of that statement.

Kelsi's head rose up quickly and she looked at him before returning the smile, "I don't think you can get much better, there are just a few minor details though that, if you changed, would make you sound just that much better." She glanced over at the clock, "Ohh, my mom should be getting home soon. You want to stay and have dinner with us right?" She asked while her eyes had a half pleading look in them. Harry chuckled at the look and nodded happily.

Kelsi returned the smile before a look came over her face, "I forgot about the kids, they should have gotten up a half hour ago!" She jumped up quickly and rushed out of the room and into the living room where she found her dad with her younger siblings. "Sorry dad. We got caught up talking and I completely forgot." She started to explain and her dad smiled and waved it off.

"I figured so, don't worry about it, I was up and didn't have too much going on so it was no big deal. You deserved the break anyways. You two get a bit more done on those songs?" He asked with a smile on is face as he watched his son traipse around the room with a toy.

"Harry gave me a few more ideas for the melody, I think I'm going to teach Harry how to sing before we work on the songs too much more though. He sounds really good already and doesn't need too much more work really so over the next couple days he should have it down."

"Sing! Sing! Sing!" Kevin shouted happily as he dropped the toy and ran over to where Harry was standing and pulled on his arm. Harry chuckled at him, "No, that's okay. I…"

"Sing! Sing!" Macy giggled as she joined in with her brother in tugging on Harry's other arm. Terrence and Kelsi laughed at the sight while Harry sat down with his legs crossed and smiled at the two as the both sat down on his lap. He looked up at Kelsi and she had an expectant look on her face, Terrance was clearly amused by it all and Harry decided to just go with it. He softly sang one of the better well-known songs that he could remember, still extremely shy at singing around people.

None of them heard the door open, nor the footsteps that walked to just outside of the living room area. Once Harry finished singing Kelsi's mom walked in. "I don't know who you are, but at first I thought that Ryan Evans was here, but you don't look a thing like him. You have a wonderful voice though. I'm Katharine, by the way, but you can just call me Kathy." She said with a warm smile on her face as she walked over to give Terrence a kiss hello.

"Mom, this is Harry Potter, he is new at school this year. He is Ryan's cousin, or second cousin, or something like that. " Kelsi said with a smile on her face when she heard her mom say she thought it was Ryan. _Yeah, he is definitely going to sound better than Ryan when I'm done with him._ She thought as she smirked to herself.

The Nielson family was very welcome to Harry during dinner that evening, and Harry asked for a ride home shortly after since he needed to get back to finish up the last bit of his homework for school the next day, but Terrence and Kathy said he was welcome to come back over any time, especially after Kathy heard that Harry cooked lunch. Harry finished his homework that evening with a smile on his face as he thought ahead to what all he had to look forward to over the next couple of weeks.

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* * *

For the foreseeable future, you can probably expect updates to come no sooner than once every two weeks. Sorry that there is such a large gap, but I need to be sure I am tracking like I need to with my school work and work has started back up for me. As the poll decided, Harry will be a good singer, but he will need to work some for it. Rest assured that he will surprise everyone else in this story not named Kelsi Nielson.

I couldn't find anywhere what Kelsi's parents were named, nor do I know if she is an only child so I decided to have some fun. Along that same vein; the two Evans families as in 'Lily Evans' and then the Evans from HSM are not related. I have met more than a few people with my last name but have absolutely no relation to me and I am sure there are even more of them from where my family originated from. Lily Evans was related to Darby 'whatever her maiden name feels like being' and she married an unrelated Evans. Just so all that is cleared up.

I'm not huge on typing in songs in stories unless it helps puch the plot along in some way, as such, I did not put lyrics in to show what Harry was singing, treat it like the Hogwarts School song if you would like to and pick whichever tune best fits your fancy.

As always, thank you for reading, I appreciate your reviews and I will see you all in a couple weeks.


	8. Chapter 8

The following weeks were of a very similar manner, the school week going by with Harry and Kelsi meeting up during the free periods they had nothing to do during and the pair would work on the songs for the musical and Kelsi would teach Harry how to sing. On the weekends, Harry would spend one of the two days of the weekend at Kelsi's house doing more of the same as well as her giving him some beginner lessons on the acoustic guitar. He was picking it up very quickly surprisingly and Kelsi was running out of advice to help his voice sound better. Kelsi loved having someone around to help her out on the music for the winter musical. She had been on her own and without any close friends for a few years since her best friend moved out of town a couple years before getting into high school.

Before Harry came along, she couldn't fully relax and enjoy what she was writing. She did to a certain extent overall because she had to feel it to really get the songs the best they could be. However, with Harry getting a better understanding of music the longer he was around Kelsi, Kelsi was able to close her eyes and let the music and chords flow over her while Harry sang through what they had written to that point. It was also really helpful for when she had to write the duets or a song for the male lead because he was able to sing it for her or with her.

The song Kelsi enjoyed singing the most with him was "What I Was Looking For". It was the song the two of them had started working on first and every time they had gone through Kelsi found herself watching Harry out of the corner of her eye throughout the song until she caught herself and made herself look back at the sheet music. It felt like the song had written itself as a note from her to him. He had been around so often with her siblings, playing and laughing with them, helping her mom cook, helping her with the songs she was writing...he fit so many if the things she really was looking for in a guy. While he may not have always been around, it felt like she had known him all her life. It was easy to talk to him and she didn't feel as shy when interacting with him.

School continued on as it had been, but Harry had begun to mingle more. He was still kind of in that outsider group so he could pop up in different circles and not seem too out of place. One of the friends he made that surprised Kelsi though was Zeke. It turns out that Zeke was also a huge fan of baking and the two traded some tips and tricks they had learned, though that mostly happened outside of school since Zeke wasn't sure how his friends would react. Troy was another of the 'jocks' that warmed up to Harry easily enough and accepted him to the table with little trouble or question when Zeke introduced him to the table. Harry even tried his hand at basketball, surprisingly the newly made friendships lasted even that horrendous experience.

Sharpay had started backing off on critiquing Harry's fashion choice as he slowly better understood what she was paying attention to. Mostly he could wear what he wanted to as long as he followed some very specific guidelines on what went with what. Ryan had even offered some of his older hats that he didn't wear anymore for Harry to try sometimes. It didn't happen often, but there were a few times a hat just seemed to work with the clothes he chose for the day. Magical classes were also going smoothly with Harry having little trouble keeping up with the lessons he was being sent. Though there had been a couple close calls with one of the Evans family members who just so happen to have walked in just as he was coming back out of the pensieve. Overall things were going very well for Harry.

Kelsi noticed, she had decided that since Harry was getting so good at playing the guitar and singing that she would sign him up to do a set at an open mic event that happened annually a little ways off the beaten path in terms of who all knows about it, but she thought it would be a perfect place for Harry to try out singing in front of other people than just her and her family. Kelsi and the host had been friends for quite a few years after her parents did something similar to her and more or less threw her onto the stage despite her stage fright. She loved it halfway into it and had never looked back since.

She shot an email to her friend who put everything together for it and told him she had a new recruit for the schedule. After pressing send, she sat back and thought about what songs Harry could do for it. He had recently taken to listening to the Lumineers, Gavin DeGraw, Bruno Mars, some Paramore, The Script and a few others recently and there were some great, very well known songs sung by them. Her mind ran through ones she knew from them and then her thoughts jumped to a different track and sat forward. Harry had just introduced her to a band he had found recently and she loved a song that they did, it was a duet and while Harry could really sing out on the higher notes as a tenor, "Barton Hollow" by The Civil Wars really showcased his baritone and bass range. The other good thing about the song is she figured that she would have an easier time convincing Harry to get on the stage with her if it was her asking him to help her sing a duet for the open mic event.

Her email dinged as a new message appeared and she clicked into her friend's response that said he had a spot saved for him and then asked if she would like one also. She replied with her plans of just doing a duet with her friend though she said she was open to do another song if people were being shy. She sent off her reply and moved over to mark the date of the event on her calendar. It was usually held a couple weeks before Christmas so hopefully the Evans family didn't have plans to go out of town.

She sent a text to Harry asking if he knew whether his family had plans to go anywhere for Christmas. A few moments later he sends a reply saying that they were not since he had friends coming in from London to visit him for the holidays. He asked if her family was planning to and she quickly sent back that they were not and that she hoped to meet his friends when they came in. The pair sent texts back and forth for a couple more hours before retiring to bed for the night.

Time passed quickly, Harry thankfully didn't have any terrible or life and death situations on Halloween other than trying to survive the costume Sharpay had more or less forced him to wear so that he could match with the theme her and Ryan had decided on: Witches and Wizards. Harry was quick to send off a penseive memory to his friends so that they could enjoy what the non-magical people thought were what witches and wizards looked like. Though from some people he had seen in the magical world…maybe they weren't too far off. Christmas break was upon the students at West High before they hardly even realized it. Kelsi and Harry had begun practicing the song Kelsi wanted them to do for the duet at the open mic as well as a couple of the other duets by the Civil Wars and Harry had invited his friends to come with them. He also explained that one of his friends, Ron, was a little on the slow side at times and might make a big deal about something random or common. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were the ones who were coming to visit with Hermione's parents coming as chaperones rather than the Weasley family since the Evans family and those around Harry right now weren't supposed to know about magic. Out of his three friends, Ron was going to be the most worrisome since half the time he couldn't control what he said, and the other half of the time, he was simply to lazy to think about what he would say next, hence most of his fights with Hermione. Ginny had been dating Dean last year so she should know a little bit more about a 'muggle' lifestyle since his mother raised him outside of the magical world.

Harry did have to put up with more than a few extra shopping trips than usual since it was break and they twins didn't have to wait for the weekend to do any shopping, but he had slowly begun to enjoy it a little more, not much, but he could now mostly tolerate it since he halfway knew what he was supposed to be looking for. Most of the time though, Harry was able to slip out and go hang out at Kelsi's or Zeke's house. While at Kelsie's they would either be working on the winter musical, which the twins knew about now, or the duet the pair would be doing. While he was at Zeke's house he was usually baking or playing some video games.

They had reached the week of the open mic, which was scheduled for a Friday, and Harry's friends arrived in town and checked into a hotel nearby on the Tuesday before and after taking the rest of the day to adjust and catch up on sleep from the jet lag, they met up with Harry for lunch on Wednesday. Harry had been given a ride with the Evans to a restaurant after they had stopped to pick up Kelsi from her house. Harry had barely made it through the doors of the restaurant before a pair of red and brown haired young ladies flew into him, followed leisurely by a red haired young man. The two near tackles nearly knocked the wind out of him. A huge grin split out across his face and he returned the crushing hug from Hermione and Ginny and nodded with a happy smile to Ron.

"It's so good to see you three again. It feels like ages!" Harry said as well as he could with the limited amount of breathing he could manage from the pair of hugs. He gave a friendly nod to Mr. and Mrs. Granger as they walked up behind Ron. Harry gave a half chuckle before patting the two girls on the back and moving backwards slightly to end the hug. As they let go, Harry moved to shake Ron and Mr. and Mrs. Granger's hands in greeting. "Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, this is my family," Pointing to each as he introduced them. "And this is my friend Kelsi Nielson. Everybody, this is Hermione, Ron, and Ginny with Hermione's parents there behind them. Ron is Ginny's older sister, and the three of them were my first friends. We all met at the private school I started attending when I was 11 in Scotland."

Kelsi gave him a strange look, as did Ryan and Sharpay, though after a few moments their faces cleared once again but there was still some contemplation that each of them were taking part in. Ryan and Sharpay had talked with Harry about school but thought he had been homeschooled the whole time, though they had heard of some homeschool students getting together once or twice a week to have other friends who were also homeschooling, but Harry had never mentioned it before when they talked. Kelsi on the other hand was worried about the statement "First friends" in conjunction to him being 11 years old when he gained his "first friends." Little did she know, that would come to her mind multiple times throughout the night. The three shared questioning looks between the three of them and shrugged in curiosity since none of them had heard any of those things from Harry before, each resolving to talk with him about it at a later time.

Dinner passed easily without the Statute of Secrecy being broken by Ron, and great conversation to be had by all. While the three young wizards that had come to visit Harry didn't quite live up to the dress standards usually held by the Evans twins, Ryan and Sharpay were very easy going and engaging in conversation, asking questions about England and the private school they attended. Someone had miraculously tamed Ron some to where he was semi-respectable while eating at the table, Harry wondered if he needed to check his first best friend for the imperious curse from one of the girls because of how well mannered he was acting. Maybe Hermione found a charm or something.

Kelsi was enjoying the time with Harry's friends though she had felt weird when the two girls had greeted Harry with such a big and long hug. Harry had said a lot about Hermione and Ron when he told he about some of his background before moving in with the Evans, though most of it was vague or he didn't say much, Ginny however was one she hadn't heard hardly anything about other than, "She is Ron's little sister." Kelsi wasn't too sure if there was some attraction there on either side, but the way Ginny had hugged Harry, there seemed to be a little something there. It stuck out to her again however, the statement "first friends." She had never heard anyone refer to a friend like that, she hoped it was just a different way of him saying 'Best Friend' because if it was taken literally, then Harry didn't have a single friend growing up until he turned 11 and went to school.

Even the short time since her friend had moved had been tough for her since there wasn't really anyone else to hang out with, but to go _eleven years_ without a friend, especially the first eleven years of life… She shuddered at the thought of being alone that long, even most kids in a foster home had better living standards than that. Harry's home life was also something he had never really talked about before. He had said his family didn't like him much and left it at that. She bit her lip lightly as she worried about her friend, keeping pain and grief buried was never a good thing. Something she noticed, though most of the others probably wouldn't, was a level of tension between Harry and his three friends, not angry or hurt tension, but what she would often experience from her parents when they were talking about a big issue that they didn't want to tell the kids about yet. She would usually end up hearing about it after her brother and sister went to bed which is why she had become attuned to the feeling, but she wondered at what kind of secret they were keeping that they couldn't talk about openly.

Ryan and Sharpay were surprised with themselves as they enjoyed conversing with Hermione and Ginny. At first, Harry hadn't thought they would have much in common, but Hermione had ended up getting Ryan to come out of his shell more by asking very open-ended questions about growing up, why he chose to dress like he did, what his favorite outfit was, what classes he enjoyed at school and many other topics that he usually didn't get a long enough pause to get his say in when he was talking with his sister. Sharpay was experiencing the opposite; for once she had found someone that was able to talk as much as she could and she was enjoying the conversation. Her and Ginny had gotten into a few topics of fashion and who knows what else. Sharpay was enjoying talking with a person who didn't mind jumping in to the middle of what she was saying. Talking with her brother could get a little tiresome because it seemed like he was always content to stay silent.

Both siblings had a chance to see the other in a very different light between the two different conversations the other twin was having. Sharpay began realizing that Ryan actually had a lot to say, but she more often than not just ran straight from one topic to the next, leaving Ryan very little time to get his thoughts in on the subject. Ryan was realizing how he needed to deal with Sharpay if he wanted to get a few words in. Harry and Kelsi watched the four new friends talking as they talked with each other and put in a few comments here and there on either conversations. While Ron wasn't scarfing food down in a disgusting manner, he didn't do much else than eat, maybe speaking here and there on one matter or another, but Harry could tell there wasn't much Ron really knew about when it came to the part of the world that doesn't know about magic.

While the kids were talking, The Evans and Granger parents were enjoying the company of other adults, though the Grangers felt a little out of place when they were told what the Evans parents did for work and the kind of lavish lives they lived. While the Grangers weren't poor by any means, since their dental practice was well known in Crawley, they didn't have anywhere near _that_ much money. The dinner and ultimately evening ended well and the visiting friends from England were once more invited to the open mic night that Harry and Kelsi were going to be involved in.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: ****IMPORTANT FOR THIS CHAPTER**

Harry singing = {_lyrics_}

Kelsi singing = [ _lyrics_]

Together/Harmony = (_lyrics_)

Figured that would make life a little easier for those of you who don't know the songs. :)

Btw, you're likely going to hate me by the end of this…sorry.

* * *

Harry woke up the morning of the open mic to find Sharpay and Ryan looming over the foot of his bed with maniacal gleams in their eyes. He quickly blinked away the sleepiness still residing in his eyes and mind and shuffled back away from them slightly. Grins spread across their face and Harry knew he was doomed.

Sharpay opened her mouth and confirmed it, "You have twenty minutes. Get up, get ready and meet us in the foyer. You need a new outfit and a hair cut since you are making your first trip onto the stage." With that, her and Ryan both turned and walked haughtily out of his room.

Forgetting he had moved backwards when he sat up, Harry tries to flop back onto his pillow with a groan but his head rams into the headboard instead. Clutching the now sore head and mumbling about his ever-poor luck, he rolls out of bed and moves towards the bathroom. He barely makes it down within the set time limit and is quickly ushered out to the waiting bright pink limo.

While Harry wasn't huge on the obnoxious color of the limo, he had to imagine the workers at the mall and other stores in the area were thankful for it; it gave them a warning from a mile away about the need for an extended lunch break, time to fabricate a story about being deathly ill, or even call in an assassination on one of their less loved family members for a family emergency. Harry chuckled darkly to himself and tried to tune out the banter going back and forth between Ryan and Sharpay about what kind of outfit and hairstyle Harry needed to make a good first impression. Harry shrugged off those thoughts and paid attention to thought behind their actions. He knew that this was their way of showing they cared since it was what made the most sense to them.

By the end of the shopping trip, Harry had to admit that the last few hours, while just short of torture, were very productive and he looked very smart in his new clothes. Ryan and Sharpay definitely knew what they were doing. The part he was worried about however was the upcoming haircut. His mind flashed back to Petunia cutting his hair horribly the night before picture day at the school and then him waking up the next morning with the exact same length as he had before the haircut. He wasn't sure if it was a manifestation of a power similar to Tonks' metamorophmagus abilities or just accidental magic but he hoped it didn't happen again or else he would have to find an amazing cover story to explain the quick regrowth.

The trio made their way into the hair salon and Ryan and Sharpay began flipping through the different magazines for more hairstyle options sometimes stopping on different ones to discuss the pros and cons. There was no one else in the salon so a couple of the hairstylists came over to give their opinion, Harry's favorite was one of the young ladies suggesting keeping the hair length but working it into what she called a 'messy' look since his hair seemed to get close on its own. Ryan and Sharpay had both tried to help with his hair, but Harry had never used any kind of hair styling substance to get his hair to behave and didn't know how to apply it effectively so usually tried to make it stay flat after getting out of the shower.

Harry gets led over to a chair and for the next half hour, the hairstylist who suggested the messy look worked his hair over and showed him how to get the results he wanted. Thankfully by the time the three left the hair salon, Harry didn't have to get his hair cut since Ryan and Sharpay decided it looked fine the length that it was. The positive side to all the action his day had held so far was he only had a couple hours lefts before he and Kelsi got together to work through their song before going to the venue to do a sound check and then sitting back until it was their time to perform.

Ryan and Sharpay passed the remaining time walking Harry through some of their vocal warm-ups. Harry had to fight hard a few times to keep from laughing at them but figured that if they had gotten leading roles so often in musicals, they must be doing something right and that he should listen to their advice. Sharpay was still pouting since she and Ryan had been told that they couldn't hear Harry and Kelsi sing the song until that night.

Harry grabbed the guitar from the corner of the room after Ryan and Sharpay decided he had warmed up enough and walked into the room he and Kelsi were going to meet to practice one more time before they went to the venue. He sat down and started tuning the guitar like Kelsi had shown him and then played through a little bit of the song before he heard the door open again, twisting around he starts to greet Kelsi and is stopped dead in his tracks.

Kelsi stood just inside the doorframe with a bashful look on her face as she watched Harry's eyes trail over her quickly with a look of amazement on his face, "Wow. You look absolutely stunning!" Harry breathed out, and she did, her hair gently curled and resting on one shoulder. She was wearing a sleeveless, deep green blouse that had black accents and designs running across it with a pair of black jeans on. She blushed lightly with a shy smile on her face, "You don't look half bad yourself, Harry." She moved into the room and took a seat next to Harry, "Are you ready? Nervous any?" She asked softly.

Harry leaned back into the couch the pair of them were sitting on and picked at the guitar strings lightly, "Not really," he replied, "I mean of course there is some nervousness there, but it is bearable I guess. It's like a heightened level of anticipation and desire to pull this off, but we have practiced enough that I feel confident about it." Harry glanced over at the clock on the wall and rocked forward and onto his feet. Sliding the guitar around to rest on his back, he reached out both hands to Kelsi and helped her up off the couch and then held the door to the room open as they walked to the room that held the sage they would be playing on later in the evening. The two of them conversed quickly with the man who was running the soundboard for the night and went through their song while the sound tech adjusted the levels for them.

The sound check and run through went smoothly and Harry and Kelsi walked off the stage together once they finished up so that they could go meet their family and friends that had been able to come. Ryan and Sharpay had apparently been able to get a scheduled slot during the night and had also dressed up and came in wearing enormous smiles with their parents following shortly afterwards. Harry's friends arrived next, with Kevin, Macy and Kelsi's parents being dragged in by the hands holding onto their children's' hands. Kevin and Macy tackle/hugged their sister before attacking their second target of the night, Harry, which caused Hermione and Ginny to coo at the sight, which was mimicked mockingly by Ron before he received a couple slaps to the back of his head. Harry chuckled in response to the actions around him as he returned the hugs from the two kids that he had been able to enjoy being around and playing with when he visited Kelsi.

Harry was greatly enjoying the evening so far, the displays of different vocal and musical art forms was amazing to him. The magical world didn't really have very many people involved in making art like this. The most art he had really seen from wizards and witches were magical paintings of people that they spelled to life. Many people sang or played instruments, which he was expecting, but more than a few times, people stood up and did poetry, or spoken word as many people called it. Ryan and Sharpay did a wonderful rendition of "Don't Stop Believing" and received much applause at the end of their performance. Harry looked around the room they were sitting in as a young man made his way up to the stage with a small piece of paper and started talking into the mic. There were a large number of people crammed into the dining area, a few people sitting at the bar near the kitchen area and even more in the seating section near the stage. Harry's mind focused back on the guy on the stage, trying to not get nervous now, as the young man performed a spoken word.

Kelsi reached over and squeezed his hand as the applause was given at the end of the young man's performance and nodded towards the stage when he looked at her, signaling they were to go up soon to do their performance. Harry swallowed unsurely and glanced around the room again. Kelsi stood up and pulled him over to the side where she could whisper to him on their walk up there. "Don't worry about it Harry, I know you probably weren't expecting quite this many people to be here tonight. But you have your friends and family here for you to support you and cheer you on. They would be proud of you doing this even if you didn't sing well but since you do, they will get to enjoy it also." She said with a playful grin set on her lips and Harry gave a light chuckle.

"I know I shouldn't be worried. I've had many more people than tis watching me before, but it is still a little unnerving." Harry replied softly, looking at the ground.

Kelsi squeezed his hand again before letting it go slowly, "Take a few slow, deep breaths and tense and loosen some of your muscles to slow your heart rate and let out some of the excess adrenaline your body is creating right now. People who usually suffer from stage fright have a heightened level of adrenaline running through their body and their heart speeds up because their mind starts worrying about so many things that _might_ go wrong. We have practiced this song to where it is about as perfect as we can get it and you can probably sing it in your sleep now. You don't have anything to worry about. Besides, I'm up there with you so let's just have fun with it. Okay?" Kelsi asked as they reached the foot of the stage.

Harry nodded and took her advice, subtly clenching and opening his hands while he took in a few deep breaths. He applied some of his occlumency training and worked to bring his mind to an area of peace. He smiled at Kelsi and mouthed a 'thank you' to her as he picked up the guitar and slipped the strap over his head. Moving over to the mic, he glanced one more time at Kelsi as she started to talk, "Good evening everyone! It is good to see you all back here again this year. For those of you who haven't been here before, I'm Kelsi Nielson and this is my friend Harry Potter. It's his first time here also," she went to continue but people clapped and a few shouted a welcome, resulting in a blush and nod of acknowledgement from Harry. Kelsi laughed lightly at his response and then continued, "Tonight we are going to sing a song for you called Barton Hollow by the Civil Wars, hope you enjoy it." She nodded at Harry and he counted them off.

The first chord in the song was rough and dirty sounding, just like it was in the original while Harry and Kelsi's voices blended together in harmony beautifully. As Harry moved into playing the main riff for the song people started clapping and Harry and Kelsi began to sing the song.

{_I'm a dead man walking here  
__But that's the least of all my fears_}  
(_Ooh, underneath the water_)  
{_It's not Alabama clay  
__That gives my trembling hands away_}  
(_Ooh, please forgive me father_)

(_Ain't going back to Barton Hollow  
__Devil gonna follow me e'er I go  
__Won't do me no good washing in the river  
__Can't no preacher man save my soul_)

{_Did that full moon force my hand?  
__Or that un marked hundred grand?_}  
(_Ooh, underneath the water  
__Ooh, please forgive me father_)

(_Ain't going back to Barton Hollow  
__Devil gonna follow me e'er I go  
__Won't do me no good washing in the river  
__Can't no preacher man save my soul_)

[_Miles and miles in my bare feet  
__Still can't lay me down to sleep  
__If I die before I wake  
__I know the Lord my soul won't] _(_take_)

{_I'm a dead man walking  
__I'm a dead man walking_}

(_Keep walking and running and running for miles  
__Keep walking and running and running for miles  
__Keep walking and running and running for miles, Oh_)

(_Ain't going back to Barton Hollow  
__Devil gonna follow me e'er I go  
__Won't do me no good washing in the river  
__Can't no preacher man save my soul_)

The people sitting in the building erupted into applause and cheers as the last word was held out and ended. Harry's face took on a huge smile as he let out a huge breath in relief and happiness. He looked over at Kelsi and saw her beaming back at him. He gave a half laugh before looking back at the people in the seats and the two of them gave a small bow. As Harry moved to set his guitar down and follow Kelsi off the stage, a person from the audience called out, "Do another one!" which was followed by more cheers shortly after. Harry looked back at Kelsi and she shrugged in acceptance and another smile crept across his face as he thought of the perfect song to play.

His fingers began to move across the strings again and Kelsi's face lit up in a blush as she recognized the song from the guitar intro. Harry's smile grew soft as he looked at her a moment longer before turning to sing into the microphone.

{_I've got this friend, I don't think you know him  
__He's not much for words, he's hidden his heart away  
__Oh, I've got this friend, a loveless romantic  
__All that he really wants is someone to want him back_}

He turned to look at Kelsi as he kept singing and just watched her for a few moments as she raised her microphone to join in with him on harmony.

(_Oh, if the right one came  
__If the right one came along  
__Oh, if the right one came along_)

Kelsi found his eyes with hers as she began to sing her part back, hoping this meant what she thought it did. She had started noticing it, the fact that she was falling for him, the first few times he had come to the house and gladly took the time to play with her little brother and sister.

[_I've got this friend, I don't think you know her  
__She sings a simple song that sounds a lot like his  
__I've got this friend holding onto her heart  
__Like it's a little secret, like it's all she's got to give_]

Subconsciously Kelsi began moving closer to Harry as they continued to sing, getting lost in his eyes, forgetting all the other people who were watching them.

(_Oh, if the right one came  
__If the right one came along  
__Oh, if the right one came along_)

As Harry shifted playing styles to go to the bridge, Kelsi was brought back to where they were and blushed though she kept right on singing with Harry as he led in.

{_It'd be such a shame_} [_If they never meet_]  
{_She sounds lovely,_} [_He sounds right out of a dream_]  
{_If only,_} [_If only,_]  
(_If only_)

In the original song, the silence only lasted for a couple seconds, but as Harry and Kelsi caught each other's eyes again, they paused a bit longer. The audience waited with baited breath as Harry finally sucked in some air and Kelsi followed his lead to start singing again.

(_Oh,_)

Harry plucked the chords as the song has them written but his mind had moved past the song completely, now mostly singing on autopilot. The look in Kelsi's eyes while she was singing with him pretty much confirmed his thoughts, and hopes. Seeing the side of Kelsi he had been able to see while at her house and outside of school where she was more confident, if only by a little bit, hearing her laugh, seeing her smile, and enjoying her personality really drove home his attraction to her.

(_Oh, if the right one came  
__If the right one came along  
__Oh, _[_I've got this friend_]  
_If the right one came  
__If the right one came along  
__Oh, _[_I've got this friend_]  
_If the right one came along_)

The building could have been burning down, but neither of the two singers who were being cheered for very loudly by the audience would have noticed it. They were lost in each other's eyes, relishing in the realization of the unspoken acknowledgement of their mutual attraction. Harry broke the eye lock first as he turned to bow once more, in tandem with Kelsi, before the two of them made their way off the stage; much closer than when they had walked on, which is saying quite a bit. The pair made their way back to their seats and were congratulated and told they did a wonderful job by those they passed and were welcomed back to their table with hand shakes, hugs, pats on the back and to the sound of much jumbled talking from the excitement of the table's occupants.

The pair of performers that had just gotten back to the table waved them all down and told them to be quiet as the next person of the night was already getting ready to start their performance. Harry and Kelsi sniggered at the behaviors of their friends and family as they settled back into two chairs placed close to each other.

After another hour, the open mic night came to a close and as people began filing out of the building, they stopped by the table to tell Harry, Kelsi and the Evans twins that they did a good job. Harry and Kelsi returned those sentiments to the ones who presented a talent and spoke with the people there a little while longer as they waited for the majority of the people to leave. Harry and Kelsi then moved up to the stage to grab ther things and thank the sound tech and MC for allowing them to play and getting the open mic night set up. The MC walked over to Harry and Kelsi and pulled them to the side for a few moments.

"Hey you two, you guys did outstanding tonight. Kelsi, I know I have offered this to you a few times, but I would love it if you both would come every once in a while to do some light, live music some evenings just to change things up, you won't have to sing if you don't want to, just bring your guitar and Kelsi, you can play our piano. I think my normal customers would enjoy it and it will set a great atmosphere. I would be willing to pay you both $50 a night for just a couple hours, say seven to nine on a few evenings."

Harry looked over at Kelsi and she scoffed at him lightly, "Don't look at me, you are the one who always seems to have a ton of homework that you have to do. Most of my evenings are free and I don't have any trouble keeping up with my work." She said with a mocking air to her voice. Harry chuckled lightly at her words and looked back at the MC, "I think we would love to sir, just let us know what days you are looking at and we will have some songs lined up to play. Just till we get a feel for it though, could we keep it to one or two nights a week maximum? Just until we get a feel for how you want it."

The MC nodded his agreement and smiled widely, "Great! I'll get in contact with you two when I'm ready for you to start it up. It will probably be mid to late January though before I can get it set up. Thanks you two and great job again tonight it sounded wonderful!" He said before moving off to start cleaning up the mess from everyone who had come to listen and eat.

Harry offered his arm to Kelsi as they made their way to the rooms they had gotten ready in, changing into more comfortable clothes and then meeting back up in the hall. Before they got back out to the area their group was waiting on them at, Harry pulled Kelsi to a stop, "I had fun tonight Kelsi." He said softly as he looked at her, a soft smile graced her lips as she nodded in response, "Yeah, I did to. Thanks for singing with me tonight, Harry. You did really good."

Harry smiled at the praise, "I would hope so, my teacher did a marvelous job walking me through things to make sure I got better, I would hope I didn't let her down tonight." He said jokingly. Kelsi shook her head quickly, "No, I think it is safe to say she is very proud and you did far better than she could have hoped for." She replied with a knowing smile.

Harry steeled himself and gathered up his courage, "Listen Kelsi, there was a reason I picked that second song tonight, and I was wondering if—"

A soft pop interrupted him as a voiced called out, "Great Mr. Harry Potter sirs! Dobby has found something you must see!" A small voice squeaked as Kelsi mimicked the noise before fainting dead away. Harry was able to catch her before she dropped to the ground and laid her gently on the ground while Harry muttered to himself. 'Great, I was kind of hoping to put this conversation off for a while longer… What the heck am I going to do now?"

.

.

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* * *

**A/N: **A big thanks to all who have reviewed, especially CrazedScribe who caught a mistake on the topic of homeschooling in the fic, I made a subtle change to fix that through ch8. Glad I was able to get this chapter up a little sooner than last time. Don't hate me for the cliffy too much please. Happy reading until the next update! :)


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **I usually hate recaps but it will help my mind think a little better and you won't have to flip back to see how the last chapter ended if you're picking this up with this being newly posted. I would love to see some more reviews with your thoughts on the story even if you aren't signed in, I would love feedback. There are 80 some odd people following the story so I'm guessing you enjoy it, but it would be nice to hear. ;) Posting this early than expected because I just realized this has almost as many views as a story that is two or three times longer than this story. I thought it was funny.

Story time!

* * *

_Harry steeled himself and gathered up his courage, "Listen Kelsi, there was a reason I picked that second song tonight, and I was wondering if—"_

_A soft pop interrupted him as a small voice called out, "Great Mr. Harry Potter sirs! Dobby has found something you must see!" A small voice squeaked as Kelsi mimicked the noise before fainting dead away after seeing Dobby appear. Harry was able to catch her before she dropped to the ground and laid her gently on the ground while Harry muttered to himself. 'Great, I was kind of hoping to put this conversation off for a while longer… What the heck am I going to do now?" The feeling of dark magic close by was mostly ignored as Harry tried to figure out how he was going to explain he was a wizard._

* * *

Figuring it would be easiest if Dobby wasn't seen shortly after Kelsi woke up, Harry told Dobby to come back later that evening, but explained that he and any other house elves that may come needed to be sure he was alone before appearing out of nowhere. Thanking his accelerated lessons from Flitwick and McGonagall since he was catching on to the spells so easily, Harry decided to make the best of the situation and charge forward with the explanation. He cast an enervate charm on Kelsi and brought her back around while cradling her head softly, stroking her cheek lightly.

"H-Harry? What happened, how did I wind up on the floor?" She asked softly. While Harry hated doing it, he lightly skimmed her mind with legilimency to see what she remembered while asking her what she remembered. A few images flashed through her mind as she answered, "We were talking and you were about to ask me something, but I don't remember anything after that." Harry could see it was the truth, and while he had been ready to explain everything right then and there if needed, he wanted to wait a little longer before he brought it up. Because of this he quickly covered and gave a plausible answer.

"I think you were really tired, the adrenaline and excitement taking a lot out of you and you just now had time to really crash from it." He lifted her up gently and let her put a decent amount of her weight on him as he maneuvered her towards where their entourage was still waiting for them. "Let's get you home and I will talk with you tomorrow. Alright? I promise I won't forget the question between now and then." Harry stated and Kelsi nodded, now half asleep, 'Maybe what I said was more true than I thought, she seems dead on her feet.' Harry mused to himself.

It reached the point that Harry opted to pick up Kelsi and carry her back to where the group of family and friends were standing. Upon seeing their daughter wrapped up in Harry's arms, Terrence and Kathy rushed over to where Harry was standing. Harry smiled reassuringly at them, "Don't worry, she just got tired all of the sudden as we were getting our things packed up, I'll get her to your car if someone wouldn't mind grabbing my guitar case. It's harder than I thought it would be to carry her and the case." Harry said laughing softly. "I know I speak for the both of us when I say thank you for coming to support us. It means a lot to us both and we hope you enjoyed your time here tonight. I have to admit though that I'm am about as tired as Kelsi looks so how about we all get together in a few days and hang out again. I had fun tonight."

Most of those standing around them agreed to find a time to get together again, namely the Evans and Nielsen family along with Harry's friends from London while the rest (friends from school) politely declined. Harry had mostly just wanted his family and close friends to come talk anyways as the added six or so people would have increased their group size quite a bit more, making it hard to talk with everybody.

Harry carried Kelsi out to her parents' car while Ron had picked up his guitar case and carried it to the Evans' vehicle. Harry settled Kelsi into the car and gave her a light kiss on the forehead as he buckled her seatbelt. He shook Terrence's hand and gave Kathy, Kevin and Macy a hug before walking in the direction of the Evans' car, waving to Hermione, Ron, Ginny and the Grangers. "Give me a call tomorrow guys, I need to talk to you about something." Harry said, and Hermione seemed to catch onto the slight amount of tension in his voice as she nodded seriously before climbing into the car with her family and Ron and Ginny as they made their way back to their hotel room.

The ride back to the Evans' home was filled with conversation about everything from the fashion of people who resented that evening, the different favorite pieces and then a few minutes of praising Harry and Kelsi's songs together. Even Ryan and Sharpay gave high praise to the songs and Harry's heart was warmed. Once more, the two of them knew music, when Harry thought about the two of them and him in relation to music; it was like they were Dumbledore and he was first year with magic. They just knew more and so their opinion and praise was greatly regarded and coveted by Harry.

Harry's mind drifted back to the conversation he was trying to have with Kelsi before Dobby interrupted and he smiled. He knew it was what he needed and wanted to do. He had been attracted to Kelsi the first day he had seen her. There were plenty of other girls around that people said were gorgeous or hot or sexy, but when he looked at Kelsi, he saw pure beauty. In her personality, actions, temperament as well as her looks. It was the first few things that really brought to life his attraction to her.

Harry was shaken from his thoughts, and truthfully his dreams, as a hand shook his shoulder, "Harry, we're home." Sharpay said softly with a kind smile on her face. Harry nodded and swung himself out of the limo before heading up the steps to the front door and ultimately his room where he crashed on the bed without changing out of his clothes. He did manage to kick off his shoes before Morpheus claimed his consciousness.

* * *

Harry woke the next morning to the feel of Dark Magic and he rolled out of his bed, summoning his wand to his hand halfway through the roll and landing on the far side of the bed from there the Dark Magic was radiating with his wand pointed in its direction with a spell already on his lips. A soft squeak caused him to pause. His eyes adjusted to being awake and in use for the first time of the day and the small form of Dobby holding a necklace of some kind caused him to relax, "Sorry Dobby, you surprised me. Why does it feel like there is Dark Magic around here?" Harry asked while standing up from the floor and rubbing his eyes clear of their sleepiness.

"Mr. Harry Potter, sirs!" Dobby exclaimed before covering his mouth and beginning to talk quieter though with no less enthusiasm, "Dobby has found something Mr. Harry Potter must see! Kreature shows it to Dobby and Dobby thought about your scar. So Dobby brings it to you to show you." Dobby explained, jumping in place as he explained.

Harry looked at Dobby for a few moments, "Dobby, why would Kreature show you something?" He asked.

Dobby looked bashful for a moment before answering, "Dobby was helping Mr. Dumblydore clean a home and Dobby found it. Kreature came and took it from Dobby, muttering about destroying it, but it felt like it was a part of Mr. Harry Potter's scar, so Dobby brings it to him." Dobby explains.

A pop sound followed by a screeching voice followed shortly after, "You steals it!" the house elf known as Kreature says after he appears and Harry quickly casts a silencing charm over the room, hoping the American magical government doesn't pick up on it and send someone to investigate.

Kreature dives for Dobby, but the second elf moves quickly out of the way. "Kreature, stop for a moment." Harry commands and the elf turns to look at him, "Why do you need to destroy this locket?" Harry asked and Kreature stops moving all together, dropping to his knees and starting to cry, "Master Regulus asks Kreature to take the locket and destroy it. Master Regulus drank a potion to get it and told Kreature to take the locket from the basin and destroy it. Kreature has tried and tried to destroy it, but nothing works. Not knives, not elf magic, not anything. Kreature has failed Master Regulus!" The house elf wailed as he began to beat his head on the floor in front of him.

Harry was trying to process the information he had just been given and so didn't tell Kreature to stop punishing himself for a few seconds. The house elf continued to weep though he stopped punishing himself when Harry told him to stop. His mind whirling, "Dobby, you said my scar feels a little like this necklace?" Harry asked, trying to understand what Dobby was trying to say and how his scar could feel similar to the locket when the locket reeked of Dark Magic.

"Yes, Harry Potter, sir. Your diary felt the same too. Much like the locket, much like the scar. Both—" Dobby went to continue but Harry cut him off, "What do you mean my dia—Wait, you mean the diary I gave to Lucius that he freed you with?" Harry asked, dropping back onto the bed as his mind began twisting into knots even worse than before.

"Yes Mr. Harry Potter sir. When Dobby first felt it, Dobby remembered the shivers Dobby got from being near it. Same shivers with this locket, and Harry Potter's scar, though not as strong from Harry Potter's scar." Dobby replied.

Harry sat dumbfounded, "Do you know what this feeling is from Dobby? I know it is Dark Magic, but do you know what it is?" Harry asked and Dobby shook his head. Kreature's head lifted from the floor and his with his voice rough from his crying softly said, "Kreature believes they is horcruxes, Mr. Harry Potter. Pieces of soul, foul magics, even for Blacks." He coughed lightly and Harry conjured a glass before casting _Aguamenti_ to fill it with water and handing it to Kreature, there was something different about the house elf that called out to Harry. Kreature hesitated for a moment before taking the offered glass of water and taking a small sip before following it with a large gulp of the much desired and needed liquid after his bout of harsh crying.

'_Pieces of soul…but whose…Voldemort, of course, it's how you survived isn't it. What a twisted route to immortality. So we must do away with these pieces before we can truly do away with you…my work is definitely cut out for me with this kind of information hanging over my head. Add this all to the Prophecy…I wonder if Dumbledore knew…most likely, this would be the kind of information he would have to have to really be Dumbledore. At the very least, he had guesses about how Voldemort stayed in this realm of existence.'_

Harry sat and thought for a few more moments before asking, "Dobby, do you think you could go get me a fang from the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets? Make sure you don't hurt yourself or get poked by a fang, but would you bring back one fore me, I want to try something." Harry asked softly. Dobby nodded before popping away leaving Kreature still lying on Harry's floor. "Kreature, I am going to try to help you complete Regulus' task that he gave you." Kreature nodded and stood up with better posture than Harry had ever seen from the old elf.

Dobby popped back shortly after, a large fang floating in the air behind him. Harry carefully grabbed the fang from the air and handed it to Kreature, "I will open it, as there seems to be spell on the outside for protection. There is a snake etched within the gem which means it was probably linked to someone in Slytherin, if not Salazar himself. Get ready, Kreature, you will have to stab it once I get it open." Harry spoke to the house elf and received a nod in return.

"_Open"_ Harry spoke in parceltounge to the locket and a dark mist billowed from the opening doors of the locket, a voice speaking but muffled to Harry's ears. Rage and pain burned across Kreature's eyes before the house elf sprung forward and brought the fang down in the middle of the locket, resulting in a long scream from the locket as the dark mist slowly dissipated. Kreature sunk to the ground, letting the fang drop freely from his hand and his face was graced with a smile, once again it was a first for Harry to see from the old elf though it seemed he lost a few years from his body and movements. "Kreature thanks Master Harry Potter for his help. Kreature could not do it alone no matter what he tried. Kreature will go back to clean again. Master should call if he ever has a need." Kreature gave a small bow and popped away, Dobby giving Harry a large smile before following the other house elf's actions and disappearing.

Harry dropped back onto his bed looking at the now destroyed locket he was holding above himself for a few moments before his face paled. The locket responded the same as the diary when it was pierced with the basilisk fang, and Dobby said he felt the same feeling from his scar on his head…if he is thinking about this all correctly, this is not good.

Harry's mirror started vibrating softly from within the dresser drawer he had placed it in and Harry had to smile slightly, though it may have been more of a grimace, Hermione always seemed to have perfect timing. He slipped off his bed and pulled out the drawer.

"Hey Hermione. Is Ron there with you?" Harry asked after opening the connection between the mirrors.

"Yeah, we had a few minutes this morning away from the family and we think Ginny is reading a book right now. Do you want us to go get her?" Hermione asked.

"No, don't worry about it. Look, Dobby showed up last night to show me something. The only problem is that Kelsi was there with me when he popped in and she fainted from it. Thankfully she didn't clearly remember it enough when I cast an enervate on her, but I am probably going to have to talk to her about it at some point. I…I want to tell her the truth." Harry said after a couple seconds, Hermione's face turned contemplative but Ron looked on in confusion, "Why, mate? You won't be in the muggle world much longer, you will probably only be there till the end of next summer and then you'll be back with us at Hogwarts. Right? What about the Statute of Secrecy that is protecting us? Do you remember how much trouble we got in second year for being seen in a flying car by the muggles? You can't tell her." Ron stated emphatically while Hermione placed a hand on his shoulder, "Ron, why don't you go get your sister and have her come back with you so she can say hello to Harry again." She asked him softly. Ron looked at her in confusion before shrugging and leaving the room to get Ginny.

"Harry, listen, Ron probably won't understand why you want to tell her so I need to say this fast before he and Ginny come back. You should tell her, if the way you two were looking at each other was any indication…she deserves to know." Hermione stated softly, she was still lost in her thoughts somewhat but she knew that Harry needed to do this. "Remember, this is Ron we are dealing with. I think I said it best last year, emotional range of a teaspoon. He doesn't understand your reasons for wanting and needing to tell her. She seems to be a strong kind of girl so I don't think you have to worry about her running away screaming. But you are going to really regret it and be upset with yourself if you put it off too much longer. You shouldn't ask her out before telling her, or at least you should ask her and then let her know what is going on. I'll look round for some spells that you could ask her permission to cast on her so that she can't talk about it if you would like." Hermione offered.

Harry waved her off, "That is fine but save that for later I have one that should work well enough for now, we may have a bigger issue though. Are Ron and Ginny almost back?" Harry asked. Hermione looked away from the mirror and then nodded back at him. Harry nodded and continued, "I woke up this morning to find Dobby here again, but he had brought something with him like he had last night. It was a locket, I think it may have belonged to Slytherin—"

"How did he get ahold of that?" Ron interrupted. Hermione's arm swung off screen and Harry heard an 'Ow' from Ron and chuckled, "How about you let me tell you the rest of the story and you will find out Ron. He was cleaning at the home of the Order for Dumbledore and found it. Kreature tried to take it from him but Dobby thought I needed to see it. Dobby said that…it felt like my s—…the diary from second year that I stabbed with the basilisk fang. Kreature came and explained that Regulus had ordered him to destroy it before he died. Kreature literally wept while talking about it." Ron made to interrupt again but Harry charged on, "I had Dobby go get another fang and bring it here. I told the locket to open and had Kreature stab it since he had been told by his master to destroy it. Now the scary part is it reacted a lot like Riddle's diary did when I stabbed it. Hermione, I need you to see what you can find about soul pieces and how to destroy them. If you could possibly look around the Black library they _may _have some books on it in there, though the way Kreature spoke it didn't sound very likely. He said it was such foul magic that not even the Blacks did it, but they may know about them. He used the word Horcruxes so hopefully that will help us out some."

Harry took a deep breath, "The bits that I caught from Kreature gave me the thought that Voldemort was trying to become immortal, which would make his statement about traveling down the path to immortality understandable and his ability to return would be explained. His soul couldn't leave this plane of existence, which allowed him to posses Quirrel and then gain back a body. I'm thinking the diary and locket were both horcruxes…" Harry trailed off, not sure if he should tell the three on the other side of the mirror that Dobby felt the same Dark Magic coming from Harry's scar or stay quiet about it. He decided that for the time being, there was no need to worry them. He trusted Hermione to find everything that she could no matter what so there was no reason to add worry about finding something that would not result in death or pain for him. Harry took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "That's all I have for now guys. Thanks again for coming over to visit. When do you guys head back?" He asked, trying to move away from their previous topic

"We go back tomorrow, we are getting to sight see some today with an international portkey and a magical tour guide. We will all be back at Headquarters when we get back so we'll look around the library there for you when we get the chance. You are planning on coming to see us off at the airport when we leave though right?" Hermione asked.

"Of course. It will be a while before I'll get to see you guys again. Have fun sight seeing today, oh, and don't mention this to any of the adults. Questions about horcruxes and such may not be the best thing in the world to ask from the way Kreature was talking." Harry said cautiously. There was a fine line between getting the parents involved so that they could help, which Mad-Eye Moody probably could, but there was also the possibility that the parents would get defensive of them and try to keep them from making any progress.

Hermione looked unsure for a few moments before she came to the same realization that Harry had, until they knew more, it would probably be best to keep it under the radar. Hermione nodded before she and the other two on her side of the mirror said their goodbyes and ended the connection.

Harry gently placed the mirror back in the drawer and closed it before moving out of his room. He made his way down to the kitchen and found Mrs. Cordeaux wiping the table down, and starting to set out the plates for breakfast. She looked up as Harry walked in, "Where you the one making all that racquet upstairs Harry? It sounded like someone screaming for a couple seconds before it became completely silent." The maid asked.

Harry took in a breath as he thought about how to explain before he felt his phone buzzing and start to go off as his wake up alarm went off and he grasped onto that for a reason, "One of my friends apparently thought it would be funny to get a ringtone of someone screaming set up as an alarm on my phone for me this morning. Sorry about that. I hope it didn't disturb anyone else this morning." Harry said, sounding contrite and embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it, dear. About the only thing they will wake up for most mornings is the smell of food or a personal call for breakfast." Mrs. Cordeaux joked lightly before motioning to the plates on the corner of the table, "Help me get breakfast ready?" She offered and Harry nodded enthusiastically. She smiled at his excitement and walked back to the kitchen shaking her head slightly at the strange young man who seemed to enjoy working.

The rest of the day passed easily for Harry and the Evans and while Harry hadn't gotten a text from Kelsi today, he figured it was because her brother and sister were keeping her busy. Her and her family usually went and did things for the first half of the day on Saturdays and then did their own thing in the evenings. Figuring he may as well read a little farther ahead since there wasn't much else for him to do for the time being, Harry pulled out one of his supplementary texts for transfiguration that McGonagall had sent him that detailed the process of becoming an animagus. The stipulation she had placed on sending him the book in the first place however was that he not try it until he returned, stating that even though his father and friends had thought they pulled one over her, she knew about their transformations and watched them the whole time to make sure nothing happened.

Harry was a good portion of the way through the book when he got a telephone call. Pulling the ringing device from his pocket, he saw that Kelsi was calling him, " Hey Kelsi." Harry said into the phone as he answered the call.

"Harry," Harry could hear as her voice shuddered, "Can I talk to you? Like, now? I…I'm not going crazy am I? Please tell me I'm not going crazy…" Kelsi stated weakly, a twinge of desperation to her voice as she trailed off. Harry could hear her deep breaths in the background as she tried to keep calm.

Harry let out a sigh and resigned himself to the fact that he was going to have to tell her, tonight, "Kelsi, I will be over in a couple minutes. You are not going crazy, you're just realizing the world isn't as sane as it seems. I'll explain everything when I get there. I'll see you in a minute." Harry said and hung up the phone after hearing an 'ok' from Kelsi.

Harry lightly jogged downstairs and let Phillip know as he passed that he was going for a walk and would be back in a couple hours. Phillip nodded as Harry walked out the front doors. Harry half ran to the end of the driveway before looking around, closing his eyes and hoping he learned the lesson Moody had slipped in with his other lessons, claiming that he needed a way to escape on the minor off chance the death eaters found him in New Mexico. Harry fixed the area of the Nielsen's house in his mind and turned to the side, feeling his body crushed inwards before landing outside the house with very little sound.

Harry checked himself over for any missing parts and found everything where it should be and smiled at the fact he had been able to arrive quietly. Moody had given him several tips on how to apparate better which definitely came in handy. He would have to copy this memory and send it back to moody to show he had been able to do it with no ill results. Harry walked up to the door and knocked on it gently. The door opened a few seconds later and he found a disheveled Kelsi standing before him dried, but red eyes with a confused look on her face. "I'm so confused, what in the world is going on?" She asked desperately.


	11. Chapter 11

It is official, I suck at self control and patience. I have this ready and see no reason to keep you all from being able to read it. This one doesn't end in a cliffy so I will not take pity on you if I complete the next chapter early. It will be one week before I post the next chapter. I will hold myself to it.

Enjoy the chapter!

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Harry moved forward and wrapped his arms around Kelsi's shoulders, "There is a lot more going on in the world than you have ever known or heard of before Kelsi. Let's go to your music room so we can talk." Harry said, pulling her in the direction of the piano room, closing the door gently behind him once they made it in. He sat down in the chair he usually did while Kelsi sat on the piano bench and pulled her knees up to rest her chin on them.

"There is…" Harry chuckled nervously, "Never had to tell anyone who didn't know before, there's no easy way to say this I guess except straight out so… I'm a wizard. My mom's sister, brother-in-law and their son raised me in a non-magical home but both of my parents are able to use magic. I started going to a school of magic when I was eleven where I met Ron, Ginny, and Hermione. They are still going there, but I needed to get a new place to stay because of some things that happened in the magical world that made my relatives refuse to take me back in this past summer. The Evans' do not know and I have had to keep it a secret from everyone else that doesn't already know about magic being real.

"The being you saw last night is called a house elf. He is the version of a servant in the magical world, though some families treat them like dirt and worthless slaves. Dobby, the house elf you saw last night, is one that I was able to free from one such family and he has been very loyal and…fanatical…ever since. I can call him if you would like to meet him?" Harry asked gently. Seeing Kelsi's nod he called for Dobby. A soft pop told Harry of Dobby's arrival but he was invisible, "Thank you for coming Dobby, you can show yourself, she knows I'm a wizard now."

Dobby faded into view a couple feet to the right of Harry and Kelsi stifled a gasp at the unexpected arrival of the 'house elf'. Sure, Harry said he was a wizard, and explained what 'Dobby' was, but there was a difference from hearing it and seeing it. Kelsi tried to speak but only a few stutters fell off her tongue before she gave up on speaking for the time being as an impossible venture. "Kelsi, I need you to breath. Slow deep breaths." Harry told her and she followed his advice, she could feel her heart rate slowing down.

"Much better. Any questions so far?" Harry asked after a moment.

"I'm not going crazy?" Kelsi asked and Harry shook his head no. She took in a deep breath, "I woke up this morning and thought at first the little green thing, you called them house elves?" Harry nodded and let her continue, "Well I thought at first it was just part of a really strange dream from last night but it slowly became clearer and I don't think my imagination is good enough to make something like 'Dobby' up."

Harry chuckled and shook his head; "I would be amazed at your imagining skills if you could come up with something like Dobby." He said lightly.

"So can you show me some magic? Ooh do you have a wand, or a staff?" Kelsi giggled lightly before jokingly asking, "What about a pointed hat?" She gave an exaggerated gasp before speaking in a dead serious whisper, "Is your teacher Merlin?" She kept a straight face for a few moments before Harry's incredulous glare being sent at her made her begin to start giggling again.

Harry playfully pointed a finger at her and mock growled at her, "Don't be making fun of our pointed hats. In all honesty though, that was part of our school supplies requirements. As for Merlin, he taught the four founders of the school I go to, but none of them are alive anymore. We wear robes and yes, we do have wands, however, there are rules that won't let me use magic around non-magical people, or muggles as many magical folk call you guys, but I don't like the sound of it. I prefer non-magical or mundane. Those same laws though also say that I'm not really allowed to tell you about the magical world so hopefully they can't track if mundane are told. If so then we'll be receiving a visit from some American Aurors soon." Seeing Kelsi's confused look he explained, "The magical world's equivalent for police officers."

He pulled his wand out and passed it over to her to look at. Holding it so carefully it was borderline reverently, she looked it over, grasping the handle after a few moments and she let out a soft gasp, "Have you hand this in your hand the whole time?" She asked in wonder and Harry looked at her strangely before replying that he hasn't.

"It just feels so warm, when it was sitting in my hands it just felt like a normal piece of wood, but now it feels...alive." Kelsi explained breathlessly, still looking at the wand with an awestruck look. She handed it back to Harry and he rolled up his sleeves and flicked the wand back itI it's holster so he could let Kelsi watched as the wand was stowed away as the holster and wand disappeared from view.

"Sorry that I couldn't tell you when we first met. I hated having to lie about parts of my past to you and everyone else I have met here, but I couldn't break the secrecy law without good reason, which I hope I have...which leads me to ask you what I was trying to ask you last night edited Dobby popped in. Now that you know the truth about what I am, even if you don't know my full background, would you...I-I'm really attracted to you and I want to get to know you better, I want you to know me better and I was wondering if you would be my girlfriend." Harry said in a rush. Having used all of his Gryffindor courage to get that far he just began rambling without hardly any pause, "I know I just dropped a huge bomb on you about the whole wizard thing but I've loved hanging out with you and singing and writing with you and I-"

Hesitant lips cut off his next words and e breathed a sigh of relief and his eyes slid shut before gently returning the gesture. A few moments later the split apart and Harry opened his eyes to find a surprised look on Kelsi's face and he half laughed, "Your the one who starts the kiss and yet you still end up looking surprised." Both of their faces brighten as a pair of identical blushes spread across them and they laugh at the situation they found themselves in.

Feeling a little bolder, Harry leans forward again, "Can I take that as a yes?" He asks softly and, after receiving a nod, Harry leans forward and gently kisses her again, a little longer, but still with some hesitancy. Harry looks at the clock as they pull back from each other again, "Wow, it's already 10:30," he looked back at Kelsi, "You think you'll be able to sleep a little better knowing that you aren't going crazy and that the "little green thing" as you called them are not out to get you?" Harry asked jokingly.

Kelsi giggled lightly before nodding and resting her head on Harry's shoulder and he responded by wrapping her into a hug. "We need to get together soon so I can tell you more about myself and the magical world. By the way, do you want to go with me to see my friends off at the airport in the morning? I think their flight leaves around 9." Harry said.

He felt a nod before Kelsi's face lifted off his shoulder; "I'd like to tell then goodbye. They seem like great people, which, by the way mister, you are going to explain what you meant by 'first friends' whenever we have that talk. I caught that yesterday. And I think Ryan and Sharpay did also." Kelsi said strongly and, from her tone, Harry understood that he probably wouldn't be able to get out of that explanation.

"You got it, Kelsi. I'll have Phillip swing by on our way out to the airport in the morning. Sleep well tonight, beautiful." He said lovingly before kissing her cheek lightly and slipping out of the room, quietly exiting the house and moving a distance away to apostate back to the Evans driveway. He had made it back into the house, told Phillip about needing to stop to pick Kelsi up in the morning before wishing the man a goodnight and going to his room for the night, wiped out physically and emotionally. Harry had ever expected asking a girl out to be that nerve wracking and tiring though maybe it wa mixed with how exhausted he was from the day before. Shrugging, he quickly got ready for bed and in a matter of minutes was asleep with a large smile on his face. In the Nielsen house, the last member of the house still awake found herself slowly falling asleep with a similar smile on her face, blown away by all the new information and the whole new hidden world she had been told about, but the new relationship status she had with Harry overshadowed it completely. Her dreams were sure to be filled with bright green eyes and messy black hair, and she decided she wouldn't complain at all.

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Harry's friends were seen off at the airport with little trouble and while Ron was oblivious, Hermione and Ginny were both able to clearly see the new closeness between Harry and Kelsi. Hermione had a knowing look on her face and pulled Kelsi off to the side for a few moments but Ginny had a crestfallen look on her face. Harry was about as oblivious to that fact as Ron was to the visible change in Harry and Kelsi. After Hermione had come back to the group with Kelsi, the boarding call was made for their flight and they said goodbyes once more before rushing off to get in line.

The rest of the Christmas holiday passed fairly quickly to the great disappointment of Harry and Kelsi as they had taken to spending most days together. Sharpay and Ryan had even come and stolen the pair away for a shopping trip. Harry had been amazed at just how fearful Kelsi was around Sharpay and had used that entire trip with the Evans twins to start breaking her of that fear. Sharpay was also beginning to calm down some after having seen Ryan interacting with Harry's friends alongside the stories that the pair had been told by Ginny and Ron about their twin brothers being pranksters. Teaming up and driving people crazy with the ingenuity of their pranks, none of which were actually described unless mundane terms and items could replace the actually used magical items.

Harry had also shown Kelsi a few memories of his time at Hogwarts, some of the lessons they had been taught and a few things he had seen magic do that he thought she would love to see. She especially enjoyed the magical tent from the Quidditch World Cup.

The first day back at school found Harry sitting in the parking lot with Kelsi, watching the sunrise above the horizon, she was snuggled up under his arm as the pair leaned against the hood of her car. "It's nice having someone here to watch the sunrise with me. I have done this since I first could start driving, but having you with me makes it much nicer." Kelsi said softly, closing her eyes and letting the first few rays of sun splash onto her face.

Harry chuckled, "Are you sure it isn't just because I'm warm?" He asked while squeezing her into his side a little tighter. Kelsi had already wrapped both arms around him while his jacket covered both of them and she giggled in response to his playful question, "Well that definitely helps, but I think I can find enough other reasons after a while to keep you around."

Harry chuckled again and began to hum softly as he continued to watch the sun rise. They sat and enjoyed each other's presence, not talking very much, just enjoying the company and pleasure being around each other brought. By the time the sun has fully broken above the horizon, the parking lot had begun to fill up. The pair turned and walked to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast before their first class. As they made their way through the halls, they found the principle leading a mother and daughter through the halls pointing out several different things.

Harry looked over at Kelsi and she gave a nod and a shrug so Harry led the pair over. "Good morning Mr. Matsui. Is it safe to assume this is a new student?" Harry asked cheerfully. He had gotten the chance to talk with the principle on a number of occasions and found the man to be very amiable.

"Mr. Potter," Principle Matsui began but was interrupted by a poorly stifled gasp. The group turned to look at the mother and daughter and found a look of wonder on both of their faces as their eyes focused on Harry's scar and he tensed up slightly. Deciding to try to get out of this meeting without exposing the magical world Harry stepped forward and offered his hand in greeting, "It is a pleasure to meet both of you. Principle Matsui, Kelsi and I would be willing to show our new peer to the cafeteria and her first class if you have other things to attend to." Harry stated easily, trying to draw attention off of their awestruck faces and back to a normal topic. The principle nodded at Harry with a thankful smile as he bid the mother and daughter a good day before heading back to his office.

"It is a surprise to meet anyone who knows about my true past in the mundane world, especially here. Who do I have the pleasure of meeting?" Harry asked, trying to get past this entire celebrity thing. The daughter adjusted very quickly and seemed to shake herself completely out of her amazement, "Sorry, I'm Gabriella Montez and this is my mom, She is a squib and dad was a muggle. We both still get the Minute Magician though, the newspaper here in America. Mom's family had moved over here during the last war and raised her and her siblings. All of her siblings were squibs." Gabriella explained as her mother had apparently not yet gotten over her amazement at seeing 'the boy-who-lived' and hadn't found her voice yet.

"This is my girlfriend Kelsi. I just recently moved here to stay with my relatives." Harry explained and Kelsi moved forward to shake Gabriella's hand. "Umm, Mrs. Montez, we are going to show your daughter around so she doesn't have to worry about getting lost today. Are you needing anything else from her?" Harry asked. Mrs. Montez nodded at Harry before turning around and heading back out the front doors that were a little ways away. Gabriella's face shifted back into one of panic and worry. Kelsi moved over to take her arm, she had slowly started becoming more bold and daring in her actions after getting used to Sharpay and starting to gain self-confidence by being with Harry, "Nervous about your first day?" She asked softly as the two started heading towards the cafeteria arm in arm as Harry followed along a little behind Kelsi. Gabriella nodded.

"This isn't our first move. Mom promised that it would be the last until I graduate though which is a plus. The most time I have spent at a single school since the end of elementary school is a year and a half. Mom's job has her moving around a lot so it is hard to settle in and find where I fit before we move again. It isn't fun, but my mom loves her work and I love my mom so there really is not anything to be done about it. She does her best to make it as livable as possible which helps. Usually though I don't have a famous wiz—oh my gosh, umm," Gabriella looked over at Harry and mouthed '_does she know?_' and Harry chuckled lightly in return, "Don't worry Gabriella, I have told her, even if it was only just recently. Just don't slip up around anyone else because nobody else here knows." Harry answered calmly.

"Alright, but yeah, um I usually don't find friends this early into a new school so hopefully this is a good sign." Gabriella said embarrassedly, "By the way, all of my friends have called me Gabby, it is a little shorter than Gabriella." She offered shyly.

Kelsi looked over at Harry and beamed at him before turning back to the girl who was now beginning to calm down, "Gabby it is then."

The three continued walking and chatting, getting to know each other better, finding out that Gabby was amazing at science and math though she wasn't too excited about it. Harry and Kelsi assured her that their opinion would not change of her at all, though if she was looking for some smart people to talk to about science or math, Taylor McKessie was a very nice girl who had given both Harry and Kelsi some assistance on a few homework problems. The group went to Mrs. Darbus's classroom for their homeroom time and slipped in a few moments before the bell rang, Troy and Chad were passing a basketball back and forth as they talked about their Christmas breaks. Everyone rushed to get into their seats as Mrs. Darbus stood to address the class but Troy stayed sitting on top of the desk as he looked back towards where Kelsi and Harry had dropped Gabby off at before heading to our own seats. Troy looked extremely shaken up and Chad called him on it. Harry took this in while still paying attention to what Mrs. Darbus was saying. Not a good idea to let your mind wander in her class at all.

A few moments later, a cell phone began ringing and multiple people pulled their out to check if it was theirs. Harry had to bite on his fist to see Ryan and Sharpay as two of the first people bagged and tagged for detention. Troy and Chad ended up with a detention also after some not so smooth talking from Chad. Gabriella as well as Taylor were also grouped in for detention and Harry shook his head and let it drop to the desk, chuckling silently at the events so far for the morning. This was sure to be an interesting semester.

Harry gathered his things alongside Kelsi as the bell rang and began to make their way out of the classroom to wait on Gabriella. Harry and Kelsi started laughing at the roll Mrs. Darbus was on so far for the morning and so got a front row seat to the apparent reunion of Gabriella and Troy. The two bystanders shared a glance at the mention of Troy singing but shrugged and continued to follow the pair, it is not creepy to follow behind a pair of people you don't hardly know and listen in on their conversation, right? Not creepy at all.

The pair decided after a little while to catch up to Troy and Gabriella and talk with them. "Hey Troy. Sorry for the poor welcoming committee, as far as classes go, to East High Gabby. I see that you met Troy though so things must be looking up." Harry said as they pulled up along side the pair.

"Hi Harry, Kelsi. Is she usually like that?" Gabby asked. She was answered by two yeses and one no, one of the yeses was followed by a swat against the back of Harry's head.

"Don't mind these two, they haven't seen her in drama practice." Kelsi argued in favor of her 'no'. Harry held up both hands, "I'm not saying she isn't a great drama teacher or that she isn't passionate, she is and I'm not making fun of the drama department, but don't say I haven't seen her in Drama practice. You and I both know she is much scarier in the 'theatre' than she is in class." Harry shuddered and Kelsi did have to concede that Mrs. Darbus could be quite terrifying at times.

The four carried on as they walked down the hallway. The group passed the sign up sheet for the 'Winter Musicale' where Sharpay was already signing up at. She turned around and saw the group of four watching her, "Hi Troy! Harry, Kelsi, it's nice to see you all showing our new student around." Sharpay gave Troy a questioning look at the statement of that fact, "Are you all thinking about signing up?" She asked with a small level of self-importance.

"Well Harry and I can't, since we are writing the music for it, but I bet these two might be able to give you and Ryan a run for your money." Kelsi replied. She was sad that her and Harry wouldn't be able to audition for the musical, but she figured it would be for the best since the two of them would likely be the extent of this musical. Mrs. Darbus wanted it impressive, but she wanted the music to be the raw and simplistic style that only a piano and acoustic guitar mix offered rather than the big production sound to having a full orchestra. She may bring in a trap set player to add energy to some of the more upbeat songs, but she wanted to have a different feel than usual this year. She had asked Harry and Kelsi to write out what they could as far as the sheet music, well Kelsi to write what she could of it and then work with their extra music helper for the rest. Auditions were only a couple weeks away so Kelsi and Harry needed to work hard to finish the rest of the songs.

Troy and Gabriella both stuttered as they shrank back under Sharpay's glare at even the mention of her and Ryan having competition when it came to singing and musicals but she relaxed some after a bit and took on a slightly sheepish look. Harry was surprised at the two twins; when he had first arrived, they seemed very uncaring about the people around them and how people responded the them, now however, Harry could see where Sharpay would catch herself when she saw people react like Troy and Gabriella just did and she would pull herself back. Ryan was also speaking up a little more around his sister and would often times give her a subtle sign to back off if he noticed her getting a little overbearing.

"I was just looking around at all of the sign up sheets here, trying to get a feel for the new school. There is so much going on here compared to my last school." Gabbi said before starting to walk past the small impromptu grouping, "Nice penmanship." She said as she passed the sign up sheet. Gabbi looked over her shoulder and gave a smile and wave to Harry, Troy and Kelsi.

Troy watched her walk off before being interrupted by Sharpay half humping in front of his face, "So Troy, what did you do for Winter Break?" She asked him in a flirty voice.

"Ah, you know, basketball, snowboarding, more basketball." Troy answered swiftly with a little bit of discomfort showing through his voice. Harry scooted a little closer and bumped Troy with his shoulder, "Go to any Karaoke parties?" Harry asked with a slight grin and Troy turns to him with a terrified face, Sharpay doesn't notice the by play and fires another question off, "When is the big game?" She asked, drawing Troys attention back to her.

"Wha- oh, um, game… its in two weeks." Troy stuttered back, trying to straighten his mind at the possibility that Harry and Kelsi might know what he did during the break. Sharpay gets a strange look in her eyes as she looks Troy over and says, "You are so dedicated… Just like me! I hope you'll come watch me in the musical, promise?" She gives him a strange version of the puppy dog eyes and Harry has to turn his face to hide his humor filled grimace and coughs a couple times to cover his laughs. He had heard Sharpay talk about wanting to date Troy, but having seen how Troy and Gabbi were getting along, he didn't think it was a possibility.

"It's getting close to the beginning of next class, we need to get moving so we aren't late." Kelsi said to Harry and he nodded, Troy heard the statement and nodded, Sharpay's face lit up and Harry realized she thought Troy was agreeing to come watch her. Harry turns to start walking off with Kelsi and Troy moves to follow the couple before Sharpay called out, "Toodles!" Harry and Kelsi kept walking, trying to contain their laughter while Troy turned around and replied in the same manner which caused Harry and Kelsi to lose the battle of holding in their laughter. A few seconds later, Troy catches up to them with embarrassment shining out from his blushing cheeks.

Harry can't resist the chance to give one of the more popular students at the school a little ribbing for what they had overheard, "Don't worry Troy, we won't tell a soul about you starting to sing and saying 'Toodles' when you leave people's company." Troy gave a gasp of dread as the tone Harry used and wasn't sure to take it as a joke, or a promise that he would be hearing about this from his teammates. Harry gave Troy a soft pat on the shoulder, "But honestly, no one will hear it from us. Not in a joking manner for sure. This beautiful young lady here just recently introduced me to the realm of singing and it was nerve-racking to say the least. Talk to your friends about it if it is really something you are interested in, but make sure you can juggle the two before you fully commit to something." Harry stated wisely as he and Kelsi waved goodbye and went down separate hallways to their classrooms, leaving Troy to walk down the hall to his next class alone and in deep contemplation.

Could his friends accept him getting into singing and trying out for the musical? Maybe he would subtly brush it past Chad during free period workout today to see what his reaction would be. He had talked to Harry a few times before since the new student had made friends with Zeke and a few of the other basketball players, but during the small amount of time Troy had talked with him, Kelsi, and Gabriella today, he felt like there was acceptance just oozing off of his peer, something he hoped to find when he brought up the topic with his best friend, Chad. During warm-ups would probably be the easiest time to ask without giving too much time for Chad to ask questions, or maybe after so that Chad isn't trying to full focus in on practice.

Troy reached the door to his classroom as the warning bell rang and he stopped just outside the door, remembering that he wouldn't be at free period workout today because of his detention with Mrs. Darbus. He chuckled as he walked in since Chad had detention with him as well. Troy sat down and reclined as well as he could in the desk chair, it was slightly scary to think about what detention with Darbus was going to be like. Troy's mind wandered during that class as he though over his break, Harry and Kelsi knowing about him singing during said break, and then for the rest of the time, Gabriella.

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**A/N: **I would love to have a few more reviews, just so I can get an idea of anything people like or dislike. Any and all kinds of feedback is desired and welcome. As always, thank you for reading.


	12. Chapter 12

**Heads Up: The chap following this one will be a little while in coming. I need input, see bottom for details. Thanks.**

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Most of the week leading up to the auditions passed very easily for Harry and Kelsi. While they had to work hard to get the songs to a state of being mostly completed so that Mrs. Darbus could give the green light on them, they enjoyed themselves. Harry spent every evening after school over at Kelsi's house, working with her on the songs and enjoying dinner with her family, giving him the chance to get to know her parents very well and having the opportunity to play with Kevin and Macy, both of whom he was beginning to see as younger siblings. It was a Saturday morning that caused a minor hiccup in the smooth sailings the pair had been enjoying, though the event was by no means unwanted, only unexpected.

It had been one of the exceedingly rare times Albuquerque got to see snow during the year and the two youngest Nielsen children begged Kelsi and Harry to take them out and play in the snow with them. It had started snowing early that morning so the snow was already sticking to the ground and beginning to pile up. Harry had gotten over to the house early so that he and Kelsi could work the better part of the morning and into the early afternoon before taking some time off to play with Kevin and Macy but decided to flip their schedule in case the snow didn't stick around very long.

The four had been outside for a couple hours when it happened, Kevin had just packed together a small snowball like Harry had shown him and threw it at Harry. Since he was a four year old, the throw was a little wild and went to the far left of Harry. Harry was about to lob one over at Kelsi when a snowball struck him in the back of the head. He whirled around, but there was no one behind him or on either side that would have been able to hit the back of his head. Harry looked around for a moment in confusion before he caught the surprised look on Kelsi's face as she looked over at Kevin. Macy was off in her own little world as she piled snow up in a small tower, but Kevin was looking at the ground sheepishly, Harry moved over a little closer and knelt down in front of Kevin, "Hey buddy. Did you do that?" He asked easily, trying to keep his tone from anything that could be interpreted as anger or him being upset so that he would get an answer. His mind was whirling a hundred miles an hour as he tried to understand what just happened.

Kevin looked up at Harry and found the young man smiling at him. He nodded cautiously with a shrug before looking back at the ground. Harry's smile grew a little more, "That's is great! Good job by the way, have you done things like that before?" Harry asked the small boy and received a shrug in return. He was about to ask another question when a pair of pops sounded behind him. Harry stood and spun around quickly, leveling his wand at the recent arrivals. The man further forward raised his hands, as did his female partner, with their wands in clear view. Both were dressed in similar robes that looked a little like Auror robes. Harry was taking no chances despite their appearance and motioned with his head for Kelsi to rush the two children inside.

"Not to be rude, but why are you here?" Harry stated calmly, if these were American Aurors, he didn't want to attack them and get in trouble, but he wanted to be sure that they really were what they were dressed as. Harry knew there were too many Death Eaters hiding away in the British Ministry's ranks to not be cautious. Keeping their hands raised the man began to speak, "My name is Charles Phillips, my partner is Suzie Caine and we are part of the first response team when there is an episode of accidental magic. We were not aware there were any magicals living in this area." The man named Charles said easily, "Would you mind telling us who you…are… Dear Merlin Suz. It's Harry Potter." Charles said as he picked up on the lightning bolt scar on Harry's forehead, an awestruck look on his face. Suzie's eyes latched onto his forehead as well and he watched her eyes widen to match her partner's.

Harry sighed and lowered his wand slightly, "Great. Glad to know you all can spot me on sight over here as well." Harry said sarcastically and then shook his head and lowered his wand completely though he stayed alert for any movement. "I haven't been in this area long and haven't used much magic so I'm not surprised you all missed me being here." Kelsi stepped back out the front door and Harry waved her over, "This is my girlfriend Kelsi, she already knows about magic. Kelsi, these are two of the American Aurors. Kevin's burst of accidental magic registered on their monitoring devices for this area and they came out, probably to talk with your family about what it meant?" Harry said with a questioning tone as he turned to face the two Aurors standing before him and raised an eyebrow in question.

Charles nodded, "That is correct. Our magical schooling is set to begin at the age of eight, unlike Britain where you start at eleven. Our set up is different in another manner also though as it is mostly only for half a semester the first year, half a year the second year and a year and a half the third year before starting schooling full time when they are eleven." Seeing Harry's surprised and slightly confused look he explained, "It helps them adjust to the new side of the world as well as giving them a chance to learn about the different culture and traditions." Harry nodded in understanding, it did make sense and he hoped that it would make adjusting to a completely different and new way of life a little bit easier to first generation witches and wizards.

Charles continued, "It also helps the parents adjust to their children being part of a completely different world than the one they have known all their life." Harry's eyes widened at this as he realized that so often people, including himself, forgot about the parents and how they might be reacting to their children becoming part of a completely different world. He knew Hermione would often censure what she told her parents about what had happened at school, such as the troll and Chamber incidents.

"That certainly makes sense, I wonder why our Magical Ministry doesn't do it that way also." Harry pondered aloud and heard scoffing laughs from Charles and Suzie though they quickly fought to bring their composure back to normal. Harry smirked and nodded, "Yeah, that question could be asked about many things…" he admitted with a pained but humored tone to his voice. Britain's magical community was very…interesting. Harry remembered his government classes from primary school before Hogwarts and knew the muggle side of things worked well enough.

Harry sighed and then brought his attention back to the two magicals standing before him. He looked over at Kelsi after a moment, "Well, no time like the present. Think your parents are up for a visit that will blow their minds away?" Harry said with more than a touch of humor to his voice. He had always wanted to see people's faces when they were told about the magical world.

The four of them make their way to the front door and Kelsi shows them in. Kelsi call her parents to the dinning room and ask them to bring Kevin and Macy as there are a couple people that they need to meet. The oldest and youngest Nielsen family members enter the dinning room and are shocked to see a pair of people they don't know dressed in strange robes. Harry smirked inwardly as he thought about what the Nielsen parents must be thinking right now. He decided to speak his thoughts about what he found funny, "You know, Charles, Suzie, these first time meetings may go a little smoother if you were dressed like normal people." Harry said chuckling.

Chalres and Suzie looked at their robes with a confused look on their face before looking around the room. Kelsi was smirking at them while the two other adults in the room that did not know about magic were agreeing with his statement and held confused and inquisitive looks on their faces. The two American Aurors shrugged in reply, "This is our uniform, though maybe I should bring this up to my superiors since it would probably help at least a little."

Terrence spoke up, "It seems that you know Harry at least a little, but would you mind telling me who you are and why you are in my house." He asked heatedly before calming some as his wife placed her hand on his arm. He glanced over at Harry and eased a little more as he saw the calm smile on the young man's face, "I wouldn't mind knowing what is with the stylish bathrobes however."

Harry gave a laugh as Charles and Suzie blushed at his comment on their wardrobe choice, "Seems like we still have a ways to go on getting things running smoothly, Suz." Charles stated easily before waving his wand over the two of them and let their clothes be changed to 'normal' clothes for the muggles in the room. Four gasps of shock followed the transfiguration show and Terrence grabs ahold of Kathy and eases her into an open chair at the table as her legs give out. Kevin and Macy have awestruck looks on their faces as the watch the two aurors from their place in the doorway.

"As you can see, Suzie and I are a little different than you and your wife, sir. We are what you would call magicians, though we don't have to rely on parlor trick or sleight of hand to accomplish our 'tricks'. We actually use magic and prefer witch or wizard as reference terms. Your son just gave off a bout of accidental magic a few minutes ago that our sensors registered and we are part of a team that is sent to explain what is happening and what your options are for the future.

"One option is to ignore this, let your son go through school like a normal child and hope his magic doesn't act up any more as he gets older. This isn't recommended since as long as he goes without a decent level of training, any kind of high-level emotions will cause accidental magic to occur. The minimum amount of time we recommend is five years, which would put him at thirteen years old. That allows him about two years to get used to the idea of being a wizard and having these powers and two and a half years to actually learn about magic and how to control it so it doesn't get away from him.

"Your second option is to hire a private tutor who will teach your son what he needs to know and, if desired, can help him prepare to take the tests that every student who attends our schools takes at the end of their learning period. Your third option is for him to attend one of our magical schools here in the states, or abroad if you so chose. If he attended here in the states, he would be at this school every school year until he turned 17 with his summers here if he so chooses and would have the option to continue his normal schooling on the side if he wishes to."

Charles shot a look over at Harry, "I'm not sure what you could expect at the British school, called Hogwarts. Harry here would be able to give you a better idea." The American Auror said easily and watched as the young man's eyebrows shot up. He chuckled nervously as the young man's glare was leveled at him. Suzie elbowed him in the gut as she caught Harry's intense gaze the Charles was on the receiving end of.

Harry calmed himself and tried to explain, "Yes, Terrence, Kathy, I am also a wizard. I have attended Hogwarts for the past five years and I am still taking classes with the school right now, though it is more of an online class set up rather than going to a classroom. It is in Scotland after all; commuting over there everyday for classes would be a right pain in the butt." Harry took in a deep breath and spoke his honest feelings over the matter that had brought out his secret to the rest of the family, "Hogwarts is my home. More than anywhere else, it is my home. However, I know that Hogwarts doesn't offer half of what I have heard about being offered in the schools here in the States.

"Europe is also in a…difficult place right now. There is a war that is beginning to simmer just below the surface and it won't be much longer before it erupts in a drastic way. If I were in your shoes, I would honestly choose to be here in the States, or at least nowhere near Europe for the time being. Most of the magical community over there is strongly biased against muggles, muggle-borns, and half-breeds. It is despicable the traditions and practices they hold to. Think the Jim Crow Laws here in America's history and multiply that by ten." Harry said with some heat to his voice as he thought of all the people who were being treated like they were worthless.

Harry looked around the dinning room area and decided that it was time for him to go, this was a family matter and he needed to go cool down from getting worked up. Remus had jumped to the front of his mind as he began talking about the bigotry of the large majority of purebloods in England. He shook his head and stood from the table, "I'm sorry to leave so abruptly, but I feel you all need time to talk over all of this new information and decide what you are going to do next." He turned to look at Terrence and Kathy, "Forgive me for not telling you all about this, but as these two fine people will tell you, we have a Statute of Secrecy that we have to uphold. Kelsi found out because she had a house elf appear almost right on top of her. Charles, Suzie, if you need anything from me, I am sure an owl will be able to find me. I am staying with the Evans family that lives in this area. That should give your owl enough information to get any correspondence you have to me."

Harry forced a kind smile at the people in the room before he moved over and gave Kelsi a light peck on the cheek before exiting the house swiftly. He looked around him as he moved off to a secluded area near the Nielsen home and apparated away when he saw no one would see him.

He arrived on the far side of the Evans property where no one ever went except Harry or the mowing crew. He sat on one of the rocks that was nearby and began thinking over everything that had been going on around him the past few years. His years with the Dursley's were bad, but there were no real outside forces that caused them reacting to him in the way they did, they just didn't like him. But the first war with Voldemort was caused by the bigotry that was showcased internationally by Britain. Voldemort came in and played the bigots like a fiddle even though he would have been one they would have discriminated against.

First year, it wasn't really showcased too much, aside from Malfoy's snide remarks. Second year the bigotry reared its ugly head as the students were warned for "enemies of the heir beware" and automatically, people are assuming it is talking about half-bloods and muggle-borns. There was distrust and fear being spread throughout the school when that simple message could have meant a number of things in all honesty, but they automatically assumed and began scaring those who fit the bill of people "the heir" might be an enemy of. Slytherin had been a leader in the school before the alleged parting of ways, though that could be more fictional than the stories about "The-Boy-Who-Lived" as he grew up slaying dragons and werewolves that Florish and Blotts sold.

Third year there was the blind acceptance of whatever the Ministry and Daily Prophet (and by extension their leaders) were saying, just because it was being said to most of the public. It had almost cost an innocent man his life and had already cost said innocent man a decade of life in one of the worst places on earth known to man, be it muggle or wizard.

Harry's mind ran through Fourth and Fifth year that he experienced at Hogwarts and ultimately during Fifth year, the ministry. From what Harry had heard, America was addressing many of the weak points Britain had left as an open wound for all to see the past few decades. Harry's thoughts stopped racing as his mind was brought back to the Ministry fiasco.

He brought his knees up to his chest and began rocking back and forth as despair washed over him, his mind returning to those few seconds that seemed to last for days, watching Sirius' eyes widen in shock as he fell backwards into the veil, never to return from it agai… Harry let out a wail and his rocking increased. Unbeknownst to him, his magic flared out from him, chilling the air around him and darkening the late afternoon sky to where it looked as though it was midnight around him if you were within 15 feet of him.

Harry's eyes quickly began filling with tears as the carefully constructed emotional walls began crumbling. He took shuddering breaths as he tried to regain the control and lock-down he had held on his emotions and thoughts for so long, but he had already gone past the point of being able to retain the outpouring of emotions and hurt. Clenching his arms tighter around his knees, he jammed his face into his leg to muffle the sobs that were getting away from him. The grief continued to overwhelm him to the point that he no longer cared if someone heard him. His mind began replaying Sirius falling through the veil, time and time again, sometimes with accusation in his eyes as he looked at Harry, other times with love and worry for him in them.

After a short time, that memory replay changed to add in the sounds of his mother's last moments alive, though it was now accompanied by the picture of what happened in the room. Riddle was dressed as a normal wizard, though in all black, and shockingly he looked like a normal person aside from the glowing red part of his eyes that slowly grew as he moved towards Lily.

"_Stand aside you foolish girl," _Riddle hissed as he held his wand aloft in front of him, pointed at Lily as she stood spread eagle in front of his crib.

Harry watched as the rest of the scene played out and just as the spell reached his forehead, he felt a cold finger touch where his scar was on his head. His eyes flew open and he glanced up. There above him stood a dark cloaked figure that could barely be distinguished from the dark mist that was surrounding him. The being was standing before him, a pale, thin, bony hand extended with a finger connecting to his scar. He flinched backwards but felt something spread over his body as he watched the cloaked figure move backwards slowly, the being's cloak in tatters and rags, swaying lightly in the soft breeze. Acceptance and a sense of buried knowledge entered his mind, but the buried knowledge didn't become apparent to him, it felt like it had been placed in a door that he needed to open.

His eyes refocused on the cloaked figure and watched as the being swayed for a moment before he heard a whisper, _"Chosen One." _The voice rasped in an emotionless way, a deep, rough breath was drawn before the voice spoke again, _"Unite the Keys."_ And with no warning, the figure dissolved into the surrounding black mist as it too began dissipating.

Two dim glows took shape to one side of the mass of black mist and slowly grew brighter and larger, giving the look of the two forms of light moving closer to him. The forms took a rough shape and Harry had to force himself to stay where he was sitting. More of the black mist dissolved into nothingness and the figures became clearer to the point there was no doubt in his mind. There was a soft pop off the the far side of him, but he paid no mind.

The figure on the left shifted nervously while the one on the right stood in a relaxed manner, much like he had during the time Harry had known him to stand while he was alive. "Mum? Sirius? Is it–" Harry's voice caught in his throat as his emotions threatened to overwhelm him again.

The figure on the left nodded and shifted nervously again, "Yes Harry. My dear boy, we don't have long, not nearly as long as I would like right now and certainly not long enough to explain everything, but–" the figure of Lily started before Sirius cut her off.

"Lily, you know better. We can't interfere. Harry, as your mom works out what she wants to say I wanted to tell you that we don't blame you for our deaths, and that includes Cedric, we had the chance to talk with him and he asked us to tell you that. Son, you… You can't continue on like this. It was our time to go. We found out after I got settled in that my extended time in Azkaban did have a larger effect on me than we thought, I only had a few more months to live before I passed on in my sleep. It was just my time to go. Your parents accomplished their greatest goal in life, they made sure you had a future, even though their victory was tainted with some choices following their death, they decided it was the best solution in the long run for you."

"Sirius, if you are going to interrupt me off like that, the least you can do is not take what I _would_ like to and _can_ say to my son." Lily cut in and Sirius gave her an abashed smile. "Dear, Your father and I love you and we would choose to give our lives for you a thousand times over if we had to, just so that you could live your life. Son…things have been set into motion from that night we were killed and it has been spurred on further by the actions of the past few years." She glanced at Sirius and put up a hand to stall his interruption, "As you can tell, there are things I can't mention to you, but you have a destiny that you have been hand picked for, and it is larger than any prophecy a mortal seer could give."

Lily took a deep breath, "I can't say anything past that but I know you are bright enough to figure things out from there, if you get stuck, talk to Hermione, as she might be able to help you along. She is a bright one to be sure. But enough about that; son we love you. More than you can understand right now, we love you, it isn't something of the past, even to this day, this very minute and second, your father and I and your grandparents and Sirius are proud of you and we love you. Stay strong. I don't want to put more pressure on you, but people are relying on you, and they can because you **are** able to handle it. We have no doubt in our minds that you can handle anything that ends up being thrown at you."

Sirius nodded in agreement before looking off to the side. He smiled, "James said you could play a few more pranks if you wanted. He said he wouldn't have any hard feelings about you getting a detention or two for causing some playful fun." Harry gave a small smile in return and gave a half nod in response, "I'll see what I can do for him."

A pained look of lost came over Lily before her eyes were filled with love and pride as she looked him over. "Baby, our time is up. Mourn our passing, since it is healthy to do so, but don't let it consume you. We are all here cheering you on and we love you. Keep on living as you have been, be a good friend and a strong leader and follow your instincts and morals. You do that and we will never be ashamed of you." She raised a hand to Harry's face and he felt the presence of her ethereal fingers caress his cheek softly as she and Sirius began to dim once more before they completely faded from view.

Harry heard a sniffle to one side and was talked by a small form as small but strong arms wrapped around him. The person landed on top of him as the pair tumbled to the ground and had his arms pinned to his sides with their hug. Harry struggled for a half second before the smell of the person hugging him registered and he began to return the hug as well as he could, tears filling in his eyes once more though they were no longer ones of despair.

"Harry, I'm so sorry. Was that...was that your mom?" Kelsi whispered between her tears, her face pressed into his shoulder as she continued her strong grip around his person.

"Yes," Harry said back softly, "That was my mum..." The pair sat in silence for a few moments as Harry let it all sink in. He spoke softly after a couple minutes though, "It was the second time I have seen her aside from pictures, though I got to talk to her longer this time than last. The other person was my Godfather; Sirius. He died at the end of the school year last year during a fight with some of the Death Eaters I had told you about." Harry explained softly, trying to keep his voice under control. His parents and grandparents were proud of him and loved him. He missed them and wished he had been able to meet them, but that helped him some.

Seeing Sirius was hard. Seeing Sirius _smiling_, however, did help to ease some of the pain he was expecting when he saw the face of his Godfather. He knew at the most basic level that it wasn't his fault Sirius was gone, but his actions did help expedite his exit from the living realm. Harry hugged Kelsi to him tighter, trying to draw comfort from her being there.

"How much did you hear? And how did you get here?" Harry asked after a few moments of silence, "Not that I mind you being here in the slightest by the way." He finished hastily.

"Dobby popped in at the house a little while after you left, looked around at my family, my mom and dad freaked out by the way, before rushing over to me and saying, 'Master Harry needs you,' before latching onto my arm and popping away with me. I arrived here as the two light things took shape. I couldn't see at first because of the weird mist that was around here, but I was able to see after a little while." Kelsi replied with confusion coloring her voice.

"Well congratulations, you have seen what few others have before. I haven't even heard of anything like this happening before. In the magical world, we are used to ghosts, but they are usually here and stuck in this realm of existence, I haven't heard of visitations like that and it be a real occurrence. The only other time I saw my parents was during a similarly unheard of occurrence while I was fighting their killer two years ago."

A soft gasp cut him off of the mindless ramblings he had fallen into as he had thought over what had just happened, "Yeah, so I haven't told you _everything_ going on over there in Europe right now. But it is part of the reason I suggested your parents to stay here in the US since there is a war going on over in my home country. I have been on the frontlines more or less whether my guardians wanted or and accepted that fact or not. My parent's killer is the one spearheading the terror attacks and the opposing side of the war.

"There was a prophecy made about me shortly before I was born. I won't go into deep detail, but the gist of it is I can't really live my life until I kill him and I am the only one who can kill him because I have a 'power the Dark Lord knows not' according to the prophecy. Before you came…well, lets just say I think I have a direction to start looking in for aforementioned "power" now." Harry stated softly, once more letting himself get lost in his thoughts.

"Harry," Kelsi said softly bring his thoughts back around to the young woman still laying on top of him, "My parents want to talk to you again. Oh crap, my parents. I need to get back to them. Dobby took me away before I could say anything." Kelsi said with a hint of worry and concern to her voice.

Harry nodded and called for Dobby. "You is calling for Dobby, Master Harry?" the small elf squeaked.

"Yes my friend, and none of this 'Master' business, thank you for bringing Kelsi here on such short notice, but I need you to take the two of us back to her house. Her parents are probably worried." Harry said to the small elf.

Dobby nodded and popped the pair back over to the Nielsen home. The two found Terrence, Kathy, the two kids and pair of Aurors still sitting at the table talking lightly. The two Aurors went for their wands as soon as the soft pop from Dobby was heard but relaxed as they saw the two teenagers in their midst once again. Harry gave them a respectful smile, "More and more I am seeing what I wished I saw from the Aurors in Britain. You guys have much better reflexes than a lot of the new recruits I have seen aside from those trained under Shaklebolt and Moody."

The two Aurors shivered and Charles put the reason for their reaction to words when the Nielsen's gave them a confused look, "Mad-Eye Moody." Charles chuckled at Harry look of surprise, "Yeah, we know about him all the way over here in the States. He was brought in a couple decades ago to show our Department's head how to train Aurors, back when your British Aurors were considered the cream of the crop internationally. I was a brand new recruit and even though he didn't have the eye or peg leg replacement at that time, he was still considered mad. The man is by far the best at what he does though. Undoubtedly." Charles spoke reverently. Harry smirked and shook his head, there would be no disagreement coming from him on that.

Harry turned to the Nielsen parents, "Sorry about leaving so abruptly. There are…my life hasn't been the easiest place to live. Being reminded of the prejudice held in Britain brought up a large amount of painful memories." Glancing over at Charles, Harry asked, "Do the people here follow and believe whatever the newspaper prints in the magical community?"

Charles looked at him strangely and chuckled for a moment before breaking into a full out laugh. Harry gave a pained smile as he watched the Auror react as if he had told a joke. Suzie placed a hand on her partner's arm, "You're being serious with that question, Mr. Potter?" Charles quickly calmed down and had a confused look on his face. Harry nodded in response and Charles scrunched his eyebrows together, "Most certainly not, well, not everyone at least. Some people do, but most of the people, at least in this area take what is typed in the newspaper with a pound of salt."

Harry nodded in response and turned back to the Nielsen parents, "That settles it, without a doubt, do not leave to go to the British magical community. If I were to read the newspaper like most of the witches and wizards over there, I would have a major case of schizophrenia or some other multiple personality disorder. For at least a few months every year I am a villain before becoming a savior or hero over there and the sheep in the magical community more often than not follow wherever the Prophet leads. The simple fact that it is not the same over here is a good enough reason for me to tell you to not leave here unless it is a dire situation."

The rest of the day passed easily enough, the Aurors heading back to their headquarters to speak with their superiors about changing into muggle clothes for first contact meetings to introduce the magical world. Harry's presence in the States was sworn to secrecy with a magical oath from the two Aurors and then Harry sat down with the Nielsen's to talk over a little more of Harry's true past since entering the magical community in Britain.

It was during dinnertime that conversation shifted away from the surprising topic of the magical world and moved back to a more normal topic. "So are you two ready for the auditions coming up on Monday?" Kathy asked. Kelsi's face lit up at the mention of music and nodded enthusiastically. They were able to stay on in that vein through the rest of dinnertime and to the point in time that Harry decided to head home for the night.

Terrence pulled him over to the side before Harry made his way outside and offered his hand, "Son, I just wanted to thank you for being here and helping Kevin calm down after his bout of the 'unexpected magic' or whatever you guys call it. Having you here and seeing you after all this time interacting with us and acting like a normal person really helped Kathy and I to believe what was going on and accept it. We will be considering what you told us about the situation over there in Britain and we will probably take your advice on staying here. Would you mind too much…would you be available to answer any other questions my wife and I may have later? If not, that is fine and we perfectly understand but–"

Harry held up his hand to cut the father off, "Terrence, don't worry about it at all sir, I would be more than happy to answer most questions you might have about this world that you have been thrust into. Also, if anything ends up getting broken, I can cast some repair charms for you. My friend Hermione told me that the trace on our wands doesn't register with the magical government over here and the ministry back home can't pick it up because I'm so far away. This means I can do magic without getting in trouble, as long as no one else but your family sees anyways."

Terrence smiled and thanked the young man once again before letting Kelsi drag the boy out of the house to say goodbye. Terrence watched them move out the front door before turning to go sit down by his wife in the living room and wait for the children to run out of energy.

Harry and Kelsi stood in the front yard for a few moments looking up at the stars shining through the clear night sky, holding hands. Harry looked over and to the side to watch as Kelsi took in a deep breath of the cool Arizona night air and held her eyes closed. He smiled lightly at the essence of peace the beautiful girl next to him captured and decided that aside from the craziness and unexpected emotions that overwhelmed him; it was a good day. He had gotten to see his mother and Godfather, granted as ghosts, but that was good enough for now. Also, a family that he had slowly begun seeing as his own had just taken a major step farther into his life and he didn't have to break any law or statutes to do it. Seeing the wonder in Kevin and Macy's eyes at the sight and idea of magic never got old and Harry couldn't wait to see where the young Nielsen boy went later in life, hopefully Macy would get to join him. Yes, all in all, it was a very good day.

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**xxxxxxxxxx Help Me Out! xxxxxxxxxxx**

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**A/N:** I _almost_ feel like I could leave the story right here as far as the HSM part goes and be happy with it since there are a few things to wrap up with the HP verse. I probably won't change the rest of HSM all that much. Auditions will be the same and I don't feel like posting a chapter of lyrics and such. I probably won't even mention the Decathlon or Basketball Finals since neither of the main two chars are part of either team or have any positive or adverse affect on either of them. The most I will likely do is a little more about Riddle and MoD before a little bit of follow up for after. If I cut out most of the details for HSM we are probably looking at two more chapters. The most I will do is one more chapter to close out most of the happenings between Auditions and call-backs and then the two chapters to close after that. Please let me know your thoughts and desires on this or I will skip what I'm considering filler with HSM. Please and thank you! :)


	13. Chapter 13

Auditions finally came around for the East High Wildcats and, as usual, Ryan and Sharpay stole the show; literally. Harry and Kelsi had been on the stage, playing as accompaniment for the majority of the auditions, Kelsi on piano, Harry plucking around on the guitar to add just a little more fullness. Most of the students who had come to audition were…a long way from being stars while the rest were of varying degrees worse. Ryan and Sharpay were the last to go and gently told Kelsi and Harry that they had wanted to try out a different rendition of the audition piece.

While Kelsi let it pass, Harry became frustrated with his cousins. Not only did Kelsi work hard on these arrangements almost every night for the musical, the new version of the song they were doing was nothing like Mrs. Darbus had told Kelsi she was looking for. It was the whole reason they had asked for one of the band members to practice with himself on guitar, Kelsi on piano and the band member on a trap set. Just so the feel of the music was a little more raw than the canned music feeling that Ryan and Sharpay were singing to. The choreography was, admittedly, good and their voices, as always, were outstanding.

The surprising part about the two that had rushed in after Mrs. Darbus had 'technically' ended the tryout wasn't surprising because of who it was, but that they were late. Troy and Gabriella had been talking with Harry and Kelsi about auditioning for the school musical once the chance meeting over Christmas break between the two was explained to the two musicians. The pair had even come in to hear the musical piece being played by Kelsi and Harry so they could get an idea of what was expected of them. Both of the singers had great voices, though it was easy to tell that Gabby might have a little trouble singing in front of a large group of people. Troy was also constantly asking Harry about whether he should even do the tryouts since he wasn't sure how his friends would react to it.

Harry had mostly taken care of that little hiccup by recording Troy during one of the few practice sessions he and Gabby had with Harry and Kelsi. Harry had then taken the recording over to where some of the basketball boys (minus Troy at the time) were sitting in the cafeteria under the pretense of getting them to listen to the newest version of the songs he and Kelsi were putting together. Harry had been able to get them to listen to the songs a couple of times and somewhat change their view on show tunes. It had been an audio and video recording that Harry had taken but he started off with the group just listening to it. At the end of it the guys were asking who was doing the singing since it was so good and so Harry played the recording again, only letting them watch it this time to see that it was their basketball captain doing the singing.

Once jaws were picked off the floor and placed back into their proper positions, Harry had the group swear that they wouldn't give Troy too hard of a time about the singing, which they reluctantly agreed to. Harry spent a few other days talking with them about it and they finally realized that it was not only something that Troy was good at, but also something he enjoyed doing just as much as basketball. By the time the auditions had rolled around, the team was fully behind Troy in support, though he didn't really know that yet.

The two ended up singing for Kelsi anyways since Harry and Kelsi hadn't heard them for a little while and wanted to see how things were going. Harry had caught a minor compulsion charm on Mrs. Darbus before she rounded the corner that made her want to stay just inside the doors leading from the theater area to listen in. As such, once the pair finished singing through the song, she came back around the corner to announce that they had a call back. She rattled off a section for the pair to practice through for the callbacks and then left in her usual stately and very refined manner. Harry was sure there would be purebloods back home that would be jealous of the teacher's ability to move in such a refined manner.

Kelsi offered to give the two new singers any chance to practice their section and Harry offered to give what help he could to make sure they are as ready as they can be. Harry, while loving his relatives, really wanted Ryan and Sharpay to learn some respect for the people around them. While they had made decent inroads to treating people better, mostly starting with each other, they still could be very rude whether they meant to be or not. Having grown up in a different environment than the two of them though may have some to contribute Harry had decided.

The four left from the stage and out of the theater before going their separate ways for their next classes. Harry and Kelsi joked as they walked about how Sharpay would react to the news tomorrow. Ryan was pretty chill and welcoming to others for the most part, but Harry figured there would be a few sticking points for both twins on letting Troy and Gabby try out for the parts they wanted. Looking at it from one angle, Harry could see a little bit of Ron in both twins. They meant well and had great hearts underneath it all, but because of the way they were brought up, they didn't always respond in the best way for some situations. It didn't change the fact that they had hearts of gold underneath; it was just that black coal was often showcased to people who didn't know them as well.

Things made sense to them in a certain way, and trying to see things in a different way was often difficult for them to adjust to. Change was never easy, and if there was any kind of change that would be hard for Sharpay and Ryan, it was to not have the parts they were always used to getting.

As it turns out, the twins were a little farther into accepting new changes than he expected. Instead of the screaming fit that he had thought would happen, Sharpay just looked on in shock for a moment and then nodded to herself, turning to walk off and pulling Ryan behind her with a determined look on her face.

The days that followed were full of music and days of hanging out nearly constantly for Harry and Kelsi. The two had only drawn closer to each other and had only run into two major problematic topics, what happened after this year and what Harry had to do about Voldemort. The first was an issue since Harry's time in the states was supposed to only be for this year to build up the blood wards that Albus was able to transfer from the Dursley's, but once next school year came around, he would be expected back in Britain. On top of that, the second issue was scary. The simple fact of the prophecy, which Harry had told Kelsi of, was that Harry had to bring about the end of Voldemort. Harry and Kelsi had gone over it a few times and had come up with something they hoped would work to take care of that issue, but it would take them simply trying it.

* * *

Kelsi and Harry were in the theater, Kelsi sitting at the piano and Harry sitting next to her on the piano bench. They were looking over the sheet music and talking to each other softly when they heard a door from backstage slam shut. A few seconds later, the clacking of heels and the soft thumps of dress shoes drew closer as voices slowly began to grow louder.

"…if you are saying it would be best to change the time of the call-backs to the day of the game and decathlon, I just might have to agree with you." Mrs. Darbus' voice was easily recognized. Harry and Kelsi had ducked down slightly to hide themselves behind the piano. They heard one set of feet walking away, but Harry and Kelsi knew the Evans twins were still standing where Mrs. Darbus had left them.

"So does that mean yes?" Ryan asked.

There was no verbal answer and then a few moments later, the twins could be heard leaving the area once more. Kelsi leaned back and threw her pencil onto the music holder. Harry stayed leaned forward as he tried to think of something. The pair sat in silence for a few moments before Kelsi gasped, "Couldn't you go and…you know, magic Mrs. Darbus so that she didn't change it?" Kelsi asked.

"You know I can't do that. I only stayed out of trouble for using magic around you and your family because you guys have a wizard in your family now. I'm not supposed to use magic on or anywhere around mundanes. The only thing we can do is give Troy and Gabby a heads up on the new time. They have more than a few smart people in their group, I'm sure they can figure something out. The most I can do is some sabotage backstage to slow down the start of the auditions to get them a little more time, but I won't tell them so they don't plan on it. It will just bring in a nice buffer in case they need it." Harry replied with a sigh. Part of him was surprised that the twins would still go to this level to get the roles they wanted, but he supposed they wouldn't be Ryan and Sharpay if they didn't at least try something.

The next morning, Kelsi and Harry were able to catch Troy and Gabby, along with the massive crowd that followed the pair in. Harry shook his head at the posse, so much for Gabby not having many friends here at the school. He was also amused to see more than a few looks being shot back and forth between Chad and Taylor.

"Tough break Troy, Gabby; the Twins talked Darbus into changing call-backs to the same day and time as the game and scholastic decathlon. What are we going to do to get this worked out?" Harry said as soon as the group made it through the door. Kelsi had been staring at the paper, trying to come up with some ideas on her own, but short of pulling a fire alarm, she couldn't think of much.

Troy looked around at the group as Chad took in the information and slowly began to get angry. He was about to move off before Troy calmed him back down. "Chill out guys, I think I know something that would work, but I know I can't do it personally. Taylor, do you have anyone who knows how to hack?"

The next three days flew by in a blur as the two groups worked together to get everything put in place as well as Troy and Gabby working whenever they had the chance on the duet they were going to be doing for the call-backs.

The day of the game arrived and Troy was working out his jitters for the game and the plan he hoped would let them get over to the call-backs in time to sing. Harry and Kelsi had reassured them that he and Gabby were very well prepared and would absolutely amaze Mrs. Darbus and practically anyone else who heard them.

Gabby was looking back over her notes one final time to make sure she remembered a few of the formulas she had struggled with at times during reviews. Her thoughts kept being interrupted slightly by a melody line coming back to mind and following it for a few seconds before getting back to the studying.

Kelsi was warming up her fingers and rehashing the call-back pieces she was scheduled to play, not even bothering practicing Ryan and Sharpay's piece since she had already heard the canned music from their arrangement artist. A small smile formed on her lips as she thought about the mayhem Harry was causing back stage right now. She didn't know exactly what he was doing, but he seemed to have enough of a mischievous mind to cause big problem by doing small things. She had already seen him slip into the seating area to make the extension cord to Mrs. Darbus' light disappear as well as unscrewing the light bulb from it. Both were decently easy to fix and he would probably be banned from the theater if Mrs. Darbus ever found out it was him that did it, but plenty of people throughout the school pranked Mrs. Darbus so he would be one of the least likely candidates on her suspect list.

Harry was…well he was living up to his Marauder heritage. A few missing power chords here, a misplaced mic there, dead batteries in wireless mics, walkie-talkies for backstage managers changed to different channels. The things he was doing weren't massive, but they were enough to be frustrating and time consuming to recognize. Most of the 'sabotage' he did was easily fixed, as long as you noticed it and knew where the supplies were to fix the issue. He snuck from place to place and made sure to get those areas moved around so that if the crew went to a certain place for something, they wouldn't find what they were looking for. A wide grin was splitting his face as he finally made his way back to Kelsi at the piano so that the two could be seen as working through the songs. The pair then sat back and enjoyed the sounds of people hustling back and forth, working to get prepared to do their call-backs.

Ryan and Sharpay were the last ones to go before Troy and Gabby, and since most of the others who auditioned did so without all of the fancier equipment, the majority of problems Harry caused were not noticed until Ryan and Sharpay went out to do their song. The problems first started to be noticed when the CD player was rolled out but didn't turn on. The last was when the crew did a quick check through on everything that was to happen during Ryan and Sharpay's audition. Ten minutes later, they were finally able to actually start their song.

As the twins got to within the last few seconds of the song, Harry watched Troy stumble into the back of the theater. He bent over for a few seconds to catch his breath and then calmly walked down the isle. The song was now over, thankfully, as a few moments later, Gabby came in and gave a light squeak as she saw Troy a little ways in front of her. Ryan and Sharpay were still taking their bow and Mrs. Darbus gave her compliments to the Twins when there came a low rumble of people's voices from the doors leading into the theater area. Troy walked up to grab a pair of wireless mics that Harry had hidden and hadn't messed with during his sabotage session so that they were primed and ready for Troy and Gabby.

Gabby dropped her lab coat backstage and started to walk back out when she caught sight of just how many people had followed her and Troy in. Troy rushed over to her and spoke softly with her for a few moments before she gave a nod to him, the pair then walked out to the center of the stage and faced each other, Troy still talking softly to Gabby. Troy looked over Gabby's shoulder to nod at Harry who began finger picking the lead in softly on the guitar, Kelsi pressing softly into the bass notes on the piano.

Troy led in to start the song and Gabby visibly relaxed, the music settling over her as she watched Troy closely. Gabby picked back up on her part and then the pair became the duo that Harry and Kelsi had practiced with so often, both very free as they sang, enjoying singing with each other and getting completely into the music. It was definitely choreographed, Harry could attest to that after all the practices he had to endure with the couple alongside Kelsi, but they flowed very easily through it, one person's movements complimenting the other's.

Harry let his mind wander as the pair sang away and his eyes trailed over to where Mrs. Darbus was sitting, eyes wide as she looked back and forth between just how many people were in her 'Temple of the Arts' and were enjoying the music as well as the two outstanding singers that were showcasing their talents on stage. From there his eyes wandered over to where Kelsi was sitting, or standing now as she also got into the music, Troy and Gabby coming over to sing next to the piano while the entire crowd in the audience was on their feet clapping along.

Harry watched as Kelsi sang her heart out along with Troy and Gabby and decided that not very often had he seen such a beautiful sight. This was something Kelsi hadn't ever been able to really enjoy before this year from what he understood, the joy in music, in playing and rocking out to music she had written. The expressive young woman he knew her to be, even though she didn't show it often at school, was being opened up for public viewing as she let herself be lost in her music. For once her heart was on display through the music she was playing and how she was playing it and Harry's face broke out into a massive smile at the newness it must be for her to experience.

The applause were impressive. Sure it was a large school, and there were tons of people in the auditorium, but Harry was happily surprised at the response the two new singers received for their efforts. Kelsi took a bow, even as he slipped off the stage. He had one last thing he had been working to set into motion for a while now with Dobby and thought he had finally gotten everything straightened out to put it in motion.

"Dobby, I need you to come here, but stay invisible." Harry spoke softly.

A soft pop was heard to his right side and he looked over to show he knew Dobby was there but kept walking as he began to speak again, still talking quietly, "Dobby, it's time. Here are your last instructions for the plans we made. Stay safe, friend, and let me know when it is done."

"As Master Harry says, it will be done." Dobby whispered back and popped quietly away.

Harry looked around the different props and costumes before turning back and walking towards the stage once more to join a large portion of students and adults at the remainder of the basketball game. Cheering loudly alongside Kelsi and his peers for their West High Wildcats.

The celebrations following the game lasted more than a couple hours and finally the principal had to come through and begin asking people to leave so the clean up process could actually begin. Harry joined Kelsi outside as they looked up at the sky to watch the stars above them on a thankfully cloudless night. Harry stood behind his girlfriend, his arms wrapped around her as her head was tilted back and resting on his chest, just enjoying the sounds that were around them, crickets here and there chirping, the still excited voices scattered throughout the parking lot from people who still had not gone home. He let his eyes slide closed as he relished in the weather and light breeze that slid around them, pure contentment flowing through him as he stood there peacefully.

A soft pop was heard and Harry glanced over to where he guessed Dobby was standing. Kelsi heard the noise and felt Harry shift and so followed his gaze, "It is being finished, Master Harry. The Aurors were surprised, but he cames and went easy. The wards were being no problem for Dobby in and out. You is being free now." A pale wand appeared in the air from where Dobby was standing and Harry took it gently, looking at it before giving an amused smirk and breaking it over his knee, sparks flying out from the two severed edges.

Harry smiled as the two pieces of Yew rested in his hands. Glad that the reign of Riddle was now over. Harry knelt down, slipping the pieces of the wand into his pockets ad rested his hands on Dobby's shoulders, "My friend, you have done me a great service by helping me and taking care of that terrible man. I owe you a debt that I know cannot be repaid simply with an unending supply of pairs of socks. But I know that I will never underestimate the power of you or your brethren. House elves hold more strength than wizards realize, and I am honored to call you my friend. Thank you, Dobby. If there is ever anything you need, you need only ask it of me and I will do what I can to see it done."

"Master Harry is a great and kind Master. Dobby is proud to call Harry Potter friend." Dobby wailed as he clutched onto Harry's arms, as they were closest to him.

Harry allowed the house elf to show his appreciation as best as he can before standing up and looking over at Kelsi who had an inquisitive look on her face. "I've been working the past few weeks on a way to deal with Voldemort without having to actually be there. The prophecy that was given gave me plenty of room to work in, but I wasn't sure about the best way to have it done. Somewhere in the process, I remembered that Dobby and other house elves are able to do some pretty amazing thing with their magic. They can't use wands or use the same kind of magic as Wizards which often times lets them be overlooked, but it is just as powerful and possibly even more so than many things normal wizards can do after graduating from Hogwarts, and it is a skill that just comes naturally to them. Magic is a major part of a house elf since they use it continually." There are only a few wards that can be used to keep them out and they have the ability to sense what needs to be done and how to do it.

"They would set trunks up in the dorm rooms every year without having to be told directly who's things go where, they just know and do it. I asked Dobby if he could think of a way to deal with Voldemort and after a few moments, he laid out a plan. It was absolutely amazing and he just finished pulling it off." Harry explained to her.

"What did he do exactly?" Kelsi asked. Harry smirked in reply and led her back to the car as he began explaining.

* * *

Daily Prophet

"DARK LORD DEFEATED! AURORS AMAZED! HOUSE ELF HERO?"

"_Ministry Officials and Aurors were stunned yesterday as an unidentified house elf popped into the main chambers of the Ministry, latched onto a couple handfuls of Aurors, including Amelia Bones, Head of the DMLE, and then popped way once more. The story later came out as reports were filed claiming the house elf was able to take the Aurors into the Department of Mysteries where they found the petrified body of the Dark Lord, now known to be Tom Marvollo Riddle. A note had been left by Harry Potter, The Boy-Who-Lived, explaining who He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was before taking the moniker of Lord V*******t._

_Amelia Bones was quoted saying, "We ran tests to verify the identity of the subject before us…Harry left a note explaining how the name of the Dark Lord was created, a muggle trick called anagrams. The magic of the being we found before the Veil matched the Dark Lord's magic that had been recorded from attacks we know he was involved in. The house elf brought us in, let us run the tests and then , promptly after, lifted the still stunned body of Riddle and launched it through the Veil."_

_As you can see from the quote, the house elf brought the body of the Dark Lord to the Veil, once used by the Ministry as a form of execution, and tossed the body through. Unlike last time the Dark Lord was vanquished, the DMLE made a specific inquiry in relation to criminals believed dead, as they are allowed to do, at Gringotts to ascertain the status of Tom Marvollo Riddle and found him to be declared dead. _

_Spokesgoblin Gnarlsnout of Gringotts gave us these reassurances in his interview, "We know for a fact, Tom Riddle Jr. was the wizard known at large as The Dark Lord, we also know that he never ceased living until today. It was recorded at the same time as the Aurors record the Dark Lord's body being put through the veil. Had it been asked of us previously, we could have made these statements and given warning, but to keep our clients secrecy, we had to withhold that information until an official inquiry was made."_

_Albus Dumbledore also gave reassurances as to the former identity of the now dead Dark Lord and confirmed all of which was stated by previous interviewees. We here at the Prophet are relieved to hear it be stated on so many levels that the Dark Lord has been Vanquished once and for all. The questions now are; 'Where is the Boy-Who-Lived?', 'Who was the elf and who did he belong to?', and finally, 'What response should be given to the apparent house elf hero that has brought about the end of the worst Dark Lord in history?'_

Terry Cornet

Inside Reporter

Harry let the magical newspaper flop onto the table in front of him with a smile resting on his face. He turned to where Hedwig was perched and glanced at the finished letter he had written his friends after reading through the article for the first time a couple weeks ago. Sealing it, he walked over to Hedwig and pet her for a few moments, cooing softly at her.

"Hey girl, are you ready for a nice long flight?" I know you're up for it, you're a great, strong bird. I need you to take this to my friends back in England, though you don't have to rush. Take the long way around if you want, do some sight seeing, I know it has been a while since I had you out and about so I want you to enjoy the flight." Hedwig gave a soft hoot and he chuckled. "I'll miss you girl, but I know you'll like it. Here are a few extra treats before you go and you had better be safe." A light nip on the ear was given as a response before Hedwig pecked up the treats and let Harry tie the letter onto her leg before taking to the air and winging away.

Harry sighed contentedly as he watched her fly off for a few moments and then turned back to look at the paper for a moment. His eyes glazed over for a few moments and a smile spread across his face before he hummed and left the room.

Happy tears filled the eyes of his friends as they received his letter a week later.

_Hey friends,_

_I've decided to stay here in the states for the next few years, don't worry Hermione; I'll be finishing my magic schooling here. I will really miss you guys, but it feels like I have the freedom to decide what I want to do with my life for the first time. Kelsi and I are still doing great and Kevin has shown a real knack for magic from the little I have shown him. Macy has shown her first signs of accidental magic and I can tell will be really powerful. I'll make a trip over during the summer to say hey, but lets try to keep it low key. I'm more than happy to disappear from the British Magical world now that there is nothing else for me to do really. I'll keep in touch._

_Love, Harry_

They would miss him, but they also understood his reasons for wanting to fade into the background.

**~Time Skip~**

The funeral for Albus Dumbledore was a somber thing for most attending. The guiding Light that had held the foundation of the wizarding world for so long was now gone and it was unclear who would truly step into the massive hole he left behind. One figure was inconspicuous in his attendance, and while he was sad his mentor was gone, he knew Albus was ready for his next 'Great Adventure' as he had so often referred to death. Harry had been privately summoned to Gringotts after the funeral was to be held for a will reading left only for his ears and was told Albus asked him to bring his Father's heirloom.

Walking up to pay his respects, Harry discreetly pulled out his wand and muttered a few blessings over the body of his mentor before turning from the granite grave that had been made for the greatest light wizard since Merlin. Upon his arrival at Gringotts, Harry was welcomed in quickly by a teller and led to a room off to the side of the main hall. Inside, an old goblin sat in a chair and watched as Harry moved into the room and sat in the available chair across from him.

"These three items have been left for you along with the words, "Unite the keys. Thank you for coming, Mister Potter."

The goblin handed over a book, wand and ring before calmly but quickly leaving the room.

* * *

**A/N:**

Just a quick note on some of this, just because the twins have been making changes, doesn't mean they will do a full 180. Sharpay's devious mind is still going to be put to use.

Also in answer to a few reviews, no, this story does not continue past this first movie. I haven't watched the other two movies to know the storyline and I am almost tired of this story. It was fun to start and write through, but I'm ready to move on to the next story.

This story is done with this last chapter. Thanks for reading. Hope it wasn't a letdown with the ending. I opted for there not to be horcruxes in this story bc there was no real sense in dragging it out, plus getting Kelsi into the magical word would have been difficult. As I said, I was getting tired of it. This is the best ending I can get for this story in my disinterested mind. Sorry if it is disappointing, if it bothers you enough, please feel free to take it from here. Message me and I will put up another chapter with links to anyone who really wants to put out that kind of effort. Thanks again for reading friends. As for the cliffhanger, you know what it's being led up to. Three guesses and the first two don't count. ;)

And this is where I leave Harry's 'unwritten legacy' for this story. Enjoy.


	14. Epilogue

(Epilogue by cornholio4)

It had been two decades since he moved to New Mexico and Harry loved life now. He managed to get exams done to catch up with his wizarding education while finishing his mundane schooling. He made sure to be in contact with his friends from Britain and even visited them at times. Kevin and Macy, now his sibling-in-laws, enrolled in the US counterpart to Hogwarts.

Kelsi Nielson, her family and the Evans family all helped him experience many new, enjoyable memories involving the mundane world and he and Kelsi had been married for nearly 15 years. Kelsi Potter became a famous pianist and composer shortly after getting into Julliard while Harry got a job in the US Auror cops. His cover to the mundane world, and his acquaintances therein, was that he was now a high-ranking officer in the army.

As it turned out one of their neighbours was a relative of someone from Privet Drive and, being the gossipy street it was, everyone there now knew the Dursley's nephew was not the good for nothing scoundrel from St. Brutus they had been told of. This small realization put into question everything the family of Number 4 ever said about the boy. The Dursley's reputation in the street took a drastic hit, which would never truly be mended.

Harry never knew of that since he made sure some of his worst memories were forgotten and replaced by his recent ones. As long as he doesn't have anything to do with them, they could live their own lives.

He learnt from letters from his friends that the Ministry made sure the Death Eaters got what they deserved and their allies, like Umbridge, were now being held in Azkaban. Harry also learnt that in honour of the defeater of Voldemort, Dobby, House Elves were now classified as having equal rights to wizards. Dark families unwilling to release their slaves earned them a large fine and stay in Azkaban.

Harry also learnt the wizard tabloids called Kelsi "the muggle who snagged the Boy Who Lived" though he decided it wasn't worth knowing or caring about.

When Kelsi and he had their first child they called him Tom – Harry decided it would be hilarious justice for Voldemort for him to be the namesake of his nemesis's son.

Life was now good for Harry.


End file.
